Angry Congress bids alvida to Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) decided to end decades old friendship with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and field candidates against it in the coming elections.

• Cong leaders hopeful of attracting anti-MIM voters
• The decision might force MIM-TRS alliance
• As TRS is losing popularity, Cong hopes to win big
• Congress and MIM had been electoral allies since 1980s
• Cong assigned weak candidates to MIM’s strong ones for Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency in the old city
• The gesture split votes and benefitted both the parties accordingly
• It is speculated that TRS-MIM may fight the next elections jointly
• Cong hopes to expose the failure of 12 per cent quota to Muslims

During a recent informal chat with media persons, TPCC President N Uttam Kumar Reddy revealed the party’s decision and said that it had been taken with the approval of the party high command.

According to sources, party leaders are hopeful that the decision would change the popular opinion that the Congress had been continuing its friendship with MIM to exploit the Muslim vote bank. The leaders are confident that the decision would bring anti-MIM Muslim forces towards the party.

The Congress had taken the decision to force MIM to go to elections in alliance with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). As the ruling party had been losing popularity among the voters, the MIM would suffer electoral losses which would in turn benefit the Congress.

The Congress and MIM had been electoral allies for decades and have been fighting elections at all levels jointly since 1980s. MIM and Congress won the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and few other municipalities elections in Telangana in the past.

The MIM had been winning the Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency since 1984 under party former president Salahuddin Owaisi who won the elections five times with the help of Congress. His son and present president of MIM Asaduddin Owaisi won the elections three times since 2004.

According to sources, the Congress did not assign strong candidates to fight for the Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency in the old city to help the MIM, instead the Congress assigned weak candidates wherever MIM had chances to win. MIM reciprocated the gesture by assigning weak candidates wherever Congress had strong changes to win. This split the votes of Muslims and helped the Congress several times.

However, the decade old alliance crashed as the MIM leaders started moving closely with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Since the formation of Telangana State, the alliance between the ruling TRS and the MIM firmed up and it is speculated that they may fight the next elections jointly.

According to sources, the MIM is of strong belief that if the 12 per cent reservations to Muslims promise by the government is implemented then it would benefit the community on a large scale. Apart from that the ruling party had also made several promises to the Muslims at the behest of the MIM.

So, keeping these aspects in minds, the MIM believes that it could face the next elections without the support of the Congress, and with the high popularity of the TRS, it could win its present seats without any problem.

On the other hand, the Congress decided to attract Muslims without the help of MIM by exposing the failure of the government in the implementation of 12 per cent reservations to Muslims. The Congress feels that Muslims have been restive for the past two years and they would come back by shunning the MIM and the ruling TRS.
A senior leader of the Congress said the ruling party had been contemplating to have electoral alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and this would deal a big blow to the MIM and it would be isolated. The Muslims would oppose the ‘unholy nexus’ between BJP-TRS-MIM and would not vote for the green party, the leader said.