Hyderabad: The Congress is likely to field Supreme Court layer Shahnaz Tabassum from the Hyderabad constituency against incumbent MP Assaduddin Owaisi and BJP candidate Madhavi Latha in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Tabassum is a practicing lawyer at the Supreme Court Of India. She is also the founder and national president of All India Azaad Congress Party.
The decision came shortly after the party’s Central Election Committee meeting to decide on the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Favour to AIMIM?
Political observers are seeing the development as Congress taking a soft stand against the AIMIM by fielding a weaker candidate against the four-time MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Leaders from the grand old party earlier said that they were hoping to be on “friendly terms” with the AIMIM to get support for other Parliament seats.
After MBT head Amjadullah Khan almost beat the AIMIM for the Yakutpura Assembly seat in last year Assembly polls, the Congress gave feelers that it wanted to support MBT for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. Amjadullah Khan lost the seat by a mere 878 votes.
“Only Rahul Gandhi ji does not want help from the AIMIM due to the damage that Owaisi has done to the party over the years,” a Congress leader stated earlier, adding that state leaders were on par with working out a deal with the AIMIM, albeit unofficially, if possible.
The AIMIM has been holding the constituency since 1984. In the 2019 election, party chief Asaduddin Owaisi won it by securing over five lakh votes. Its closest rival was the BJP with close to 2.35 lakh votes.
AIMIM’s realpolitik
The AIMIM has a history of generally working with ruling parties. After it cut ties with the Congress in the joint Andhra Pradesh earlier, Asaduddin Owaisi warmed up to KCR after the state’s formation in 2014. Both of them always maintained that they were on “friendly terms” and even supported each other in the 2018 and 2023 state elections, and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well.
Owaisi in his public speeches in the past asked Muslims to support the BRS. Despite that, the Congress managed to win and beat KCR in last year’s state election.
However, now it looks like the AIMIM may get friendly with the Congress if need be as well. It may be recalled that Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy even met AIMIM Chandrayangutta MLA and Asaduddin’s younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi in London soon after the Congress won last year’s Assembly polls. It set-off speculation that both sides had reconciled politically to some extent. Things are likely to get clearer in the coming day once campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections heat up.
