It will be a direct fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), for the Hyderabad parliamentary seat this time again. The BJP candidate, Dr. Bhagwanth Rao, a PhD scholar will contest for the seat while on the Majlis side, its president Asaduddin Owaisi will be in the fray.
The seat has been with the Majlis for the last eight terms in a row.
The party won the seat in 1984 and there was no looking back since then. The BJP and the Majlis are in close contest since 1991, except in 2009 when Siasat Editor, Zahed Ali Khan, contested on TDP ticket. The Majlis scored victory over BJP in 1991,1996,1998,1999 and 2004.
The first time the BJP keenly contested with the Majlis was in 1991.
However, the then candidate Baddam Bal Reddy lost to Mr. Salahuddin Owaisi, popular known as Salar, with a margin of 39,524 votes. Later, the Majlis defeated BJP in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.
However, in 2009 the BJP gave the seat to Telugu Desam as part of seat sharing agreement but the party could not register any success.
Majlis party president Asaduddin Owaisi made his debut as Member of Parliament in 2004 after winning the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.
He defeated BJP candidate G. Subash Chanderji, by 1, 00,145 votes.
Salar had a firm hold on the seat from 1984 to 2004 and later Mr. Asaduddin took over.
However, the victory for the Majlis was not a quick one.
The party failed to register success in the beginning. In fact, Abdul Wahed Owaisi, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi and Mohd Amanullah Khan unsuccessfully contested the seat in 1962, 1977, 1980.
The break came in 1984 during the height of the Telugu Desam when Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi defeated K. Prabhakara Reddy of TDP in a close contest by 3491 votes. The Majlis leader got 2, 22,187 votes against TDP candidate’s 2, 18,706. Nine contestants were in the fray then and six of them lost their deposits.
The highest number of contestants in fray was in 1996 when 53 people contested and deposits of 51 were forfeited. While the highest polling of 77.12 per cent was recorded in 1991.
