After Owaisi’s Warning, Telangana CM KCR Led BRS Supports MIM In MLC Elections

The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in Telangana headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) on Tuesday (21 February) announced its support to Asaduddin Owaisi-led MIM in the upcoming MLC election to the Hyderabad local bodies constituency.

AIMIM leadership selected Mirza Rahmath Baig, who contested from Rajendra Nagar constituency of Hyderabad in 2018 assembly elections, as its candidate in the MLC elections to be held in March.

Hyderabad local bodies constituency has 127 voters. It comprises MPs, MLAs, MLCs, GHMC corporators, and ward members of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB).

As the term of eight SCB ward members ended and a BJP corporator was dead, the District Election Authority decreased voters number to 118, reports Deccan Chronicle.

Thus a candidate requires 60 votes to win this election but no political party has the required number of votes. The main political parties of Hyderabad AIMIM, BRS and BJP have 52, 41 and 25 votes respectively.

As the ruling BRS decided to support its ‘friend’ MIM, the victory of Mirza Rahmath Baig is almost certain.

A warning from Owaisi and BRS’s unconditional support

KCR led BRS is the dominant political force in Telangana. With the opposition voters divided between BJP and Congress, many political analysts believe that BRS may create history by winning a third term in this year’s assembly elections.

With a chance to win the upcoming assembly election, the ruling BRS with over 40 votes can pressurise its ‘ally’ MIM to win MLC election of Hyderabad local bodies constituency.

But CM KCR chose to extend unconditional support to MIM.

Curiously, this move came just after the AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi warned that his party would contest 50 seats across Telangana and come back to assembly with 15 MLAs.

Responding to it, BJP state unit chief Bandi Sanjay challenged Owaisi brothers to contest all 119 seats in the state.

Presently, AIMIM has seven MLAs in the 119 member strong Telangana assembly.

If Owaisi’s AIMIM contests across Telangana, it could dent the muslim votes of BRS and decrease the chances of reelection of CM KCR.

Activists of BJP have alleged that CM KCR is wooing Owaisi with this MLC seat to prevent the entry of MIM in other constituencies.