Hyderabad: Maganti Sunitha, the widow of the late Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Jubilee Hills MLA Maganti Gopinath, has been announced as the BRS candidate for the upcoming Jubilee Hills by election. The move was expected as the main opposition party will look to make the most of sympathy the Maganti family will receive due to the ex-MLA’s death earlier this year.
So far the ruling Congress however has not announced any candidate yet, but local leader Naveen Yadav and ex-MP Ranjith Reddy are in the race for the ticket. While the date for the Jubilee Hills by election has not been officially announced, it will likely to be held by within the next month or two by the Election Commission of India.
The Congress failed to win even a single seat in the Greater Hyderabad area in the 2023 Telangana state elections, indicating that the BRS was still popular in the capital, mainly due to the development works taken up during its two tenures. The ruling party will now also look to wrest the Jubilee Hills seat so that it has a seat in the city, which will also help to get stronger for the upcoming GHMC elections as well.
A senior Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) said that the seat will be given to a local person from the constituency and that Naveen Yadav and ex-MP Ranjith Reddy have emerged as strong candidates. While there was some speculation that Feroze Khan could also be an option, his candidacy will not go down well with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which is going to support the ruling Congress in Telangana.
Feroze Khan lost the Nampally seat to AIMIM’s Majid Hussain by just over 2000 votes in the 2023 Assembly election.
The upcoming Jubilee Hills by election is going to have high stakes for the ruling Congress which is looking to wrest it from the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The bypoll has been necessitated after the late BRS legislator Maganti Gopinath passed away recently. The ruling party here was unable to win any seat in the Greater Hyderabad area in the 2023 state elections and hence winning that will of utmost importance for it.
While the BRS is sitting strong in the Jubilee Hills by election, the party has been currently hit by internal rebellion. K Kavitha, ex-MLC and daughter of BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), was suspended from the party on September 2 for her criticism of BRS leaders (and her cousin) Harish Rao and Santosh. Kavitha a day later on September 3 then resigned from the BRS and her MLC post.
Azharuddin out way of the way for bypolls
Soon after Gopinath’s death possible names of Congress candidates began floating, including that of ex-Indian cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, who had unsuccessfully contested against Gopinath. To avoid any issues that may arise after not giving him the ticket, Azharuddin was nominated as an MLC under the Governor’s quota by the state government, paving way for the candidacy of a stronger candidate.
The TPCC leader said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may polarise minority votes which may help the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to win and hence giving Azharuddin the seat would not be a great idea. “Moreover, locals prefer a person from the area itself. If Azhar loses for a second time his career will be over. He is a celebrity and not a politician,” the Congress leader added.
The AIMIM had supported the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which won the Jubilee Hills seat, in the December 2023 Assembly polls by putting up a candidate who drew a chunk of Muslim votes which would have otherwise gone to the Congress.
