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International columnist, political analyst and senior journalist Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui’s articles are published across Asia, Africa and Europe. He writes for The Moroccan Times, The Tunis Times, India Tomorrow, Kohram News, The Etemaad Urdu Daily and for news papers published from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. You can follow him on Twitter at: @journopolana[/symple_box]
Politics like the game of cricket is a great leveler. One day a politician may be a hero but the next day he can be a zero. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s so-called wave ebbed in Hyderabad, the southern Indian city, when his extreme-right Hindutva party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was literally wiped out and got the worst-ever electoral defeat in municipal polls. The BJP secured just (4) four seats out of 150 seats.
The BJP’s and Narendra Modi’s political graph has seen a virtual downhill slide, which brought down the ruling party at the Centre on its knees now. The defeat in the national capital New Delhi Legislative Assembly polls was followed by the shameful rout in the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. The defeat of the BJP under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hyderabad could be the beginning of the end of the anti-Muslim party at the national level in the coming months.
The Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) of the founder-Chief Minister of Telangana State, K. Chandrasekhar Rao made both the national parties – the BJP and the Congress and a local party Telugu Desam see their worst-ever electoral defeats. ‘They were not even left with dust to bite’ as a prominent political analyst Yeshwant Deshmukh pointed out to the complete rout of the national parties. The hero of the TRS victory was K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR’s son (as the popular Chief Minister is reverentially referred KCR) K. T Ramo Rao, Minister for Information Technology and Panchayati Raj. K T Rama Rao had offered to resign from the cabinet, if he could not secure a majority for his party in the Hyderabad municipal elections. He predicted that the TRS would get 100 seats out of 150 seats. There he was, almost on dot! The TRS secured 99 seats ensuring the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor’s posts for the TRS.
The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by the charismatic Owaisi brothers – Naqeeb Al Millat Asaduddin and Habeeb Al Millat Akbaruddin not only held the party citadel but captured 6 (six) new seats from the opposition parties. Out of the 44 seats won by their Majlis party, 19 of them were won by women. Another notable feature is that four Hindu Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Tribe candidates won on the Majlis tickets. Asaduddin Owaisi is the Member of Parliament from Hyderabad while his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi is the floor leader of the Majlis Legislature Party in the Telangana State Legislative Assembly.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP fizzles out, the KCR-led TRS twinkles and Asad Owaisi-led Majlis sizzles in new political equations in Hyderabad. The Hyderabad elections will set the tone for the changing political landscape at the national level in the coming months. This also gives food for thought to the national political parties –the BJP and the Congress to mull as to why the electorate handed them the worst-ever defeats. The politics of hatred should be discarded to make way for all inclusive development of the Indian nation. This will make India’s presence on the international political scene much stronger and meaningful.
