Hyderabad: A political consulting company’s survey on Muslim sentiments in the Jubilee Hills assembly constituency (in view of the upcoming by election) shows that over 50% minority community prefers the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) over the ruling Congress on most parameters. About 30% of voters in the seat are believed to be Muslims, and can hold the key to the ruling party’s loss or win.
The survey was conducted by the election strategy consultant Billion Connect for the duration of October 10 to 21. It may however be noted that the study was limited to 6865 respondents only, and that the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat has about 3.99 lakh voters. Moreover, in the survey, 79% of people interviewed were male, while women made up 21% of respondents.
Interestingly, in spite of political analysts believing that the ruling party will have an edge, the survey showed that 46.1% of respondent would opt for the BRS if elections were held tomorrow, and 23.9% for the Congress for the same. It may be noted that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) this time is also supporting the Congress. It had supported the BRS in the 2023 state elections, which won the seat.
In fact, the Jubilee Hills by election is important for the ruling Congress as it has failed to win even a single Assembly seat in the Greater Hyderabad area in the 2023 polls. The by-poll was necessitated after the late MLA an ex-BRS leader Maganti Gopinath passed away earlier this year. His wife has been nominated by the BRS for the by-poll, while the ruling party has given the ticket to local face Naveen Yadav.
The Billion Connect survey also showed that the BRS has consistent support of over 50% among voters of all age groups, while the Congress numbers were mostly between 21% to 32%. Even polling station wise data collected showed that with the exception of two areas – Shaikpet and Samatha Colony – over 50% of voters were in favour of the BRS instead of th Congress.
In fact, as many as 69% of respondents said that they were satisfied with the ex-BRS MLA’s performance and 9.7% said they were dissatisfied. Interestingly, in spite of the Congress being in power for only two years, 22.6% of voters said it is the most corrupt party, while 10.7% said the BRS is the most corrupt. However, majority of voters – 31.3% and 39.4% – in the seat opted for the AIMIM and the BJP as most corrupt parties.
Moreover, as many as 59.9% also chose the BRS over the ruling Congress when they were asked about maintaining communal harmony in the constituency.
