The Telangana BJP has accused the BRS, Congress, and AIMIM of colluding to defeat its candidate as polling for the MLC seat for the Hyderabad local authorities constituency was held on Wednesday. The polling witnessed a direct contest between the BJP and the AIMIM. While the BRS issued a whip to its members to abstain from voting, the Congress chose not to field its candidate, paving the way for the victory of the AIMIM candidate, Mirza Riyaz Ul Hassan Effendi. The BJP fielded N Gautham Rao as its candidate for the MLC seat.
The electoral college for this seat included 84 GHMC corporators, 2 MPs, and 15 MLAs from the Hyderabad district. Two polling centres were set up at the GHMC headquarters: one for GHMC corporators and another for ex-officio members. AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and the party’s floor leader in the Assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi, cast their votes early in the morning along with the rest of the party MLAs and corporators. Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi and Deputy Mayor Srilatha Sobhan Reddy also exercised their franchise.
The AIMIM, with seven MLAs, one MP, one MLC, and 40 corporators, was tipped to win. The AIMIM candidate also got the support of Congress, which has 14 votes. The BRS has 20 votes, but the party issued a whip to its voters to abstain from the poll. The party even warned its corporators that it would take serious action against anyone flouting the party whip, prompting a complaint to the Election Commission from a civil society group. The BRS maintained that it did not have adequate strength and hence stayed away from the contest. The BJP has only 29 votes but fielded a candidate to prevent a walkover for the AIMIM. Counting is scheduled for 25 April.