MIM-MBT keen contest on the cards

Yakutpura: As the Assembly elections approaching, the poll campaigning is getting murkier in Yakutpura Constituency with opposition parties complaining police harassment at the behest of the incumbent party. The constituency is considered to be one of the important bastions of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). The party’s stalwart, Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, is contesting for the first time from Yakutpura, after swapping his constituency with Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, who now represents Charminar.

Yakutpura Assembly constituency is located in Hyderabad district of Telangana and comes under Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency. It is one of the 15 constituencies in the city, and is the biggest among them. Traditionally a part of the Old City, the locality derives its name from ‘Yakut,’ a Persian word that means precious stone ‘ruby’. The main areas of the constituency include Yakutpura, Madannapet, Dabeerpura, Lal Darwaza and part of Uppuguda. As per an estimate, the constituency has nearly 3-lakh population, and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan had represented the constituency in the last five terms since 1994. For the first time, he represented MBT (Majlis Bachao Tehreek), an offshoot of MIM, and later contested as MIM candidate.

Despite being a winning candidate for the last five consecutive terms in the constituency, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan has been replaced by Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, who is a three-time winner from Charminar. Dubbed as ‘108 service of the MIM,’ Quadri is known for reaching out to people within no time to solve their problems or address their issues. He has generated a good rapport with locals by attending their family functions. On a single day, he is said to attend scores of functions of his well-wishers. However unlike Charminar, Yakutpura is bigger constituency, mostly comprising of slums, and Quadri will have to turn the wave of local anti-incumbency to his favour.

This time around, Quadri will be facing a tough challenge from MBT, which is pushing all its energies relentlessly to win the constituency. It has considerable voter base and the family members of late Mohammed Amanullah Khan, the founder of MBT, had historically contested from the constituency. The probable candidate from MBT is Majeeduallah Khan Farhat, who is also the president of the party. Farhat is hoping to capitalise on the anti-incumbency factor against the MIM. He has been holding public meetings in the constituency for the last one month. The leader has been alleging that the constituency has a huge number of bogus votes, and that despite several complaints to the Election Commission the list was not properly verified. Farhat also alleged that his party workers were being harassed by the police at the behest of MIM.

Apart from the two parties, contestants from BJP and TRS are also gearing up for the elections, following a recent formal announcement. Sama Sunder Reddy is representing the TRS. He is husband of IS Sadan Corporator Sama Swapna. The BJP has fielded CH Roop Raj, city vice president, who had contested from Yakutpura as MLA and stood as runner up with 32,415 votes. Roop Raj has been an active member of the Old City Metro Rail JAC and worked in close coordination with left and other political parties.