AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday announced that the party will contest on two more seats from Rajendranagar and the posh Jubilee Hills constituencies in the upcoming Telangana Assembly polls.
The Congress has fielded former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin from the Jubilee Hills constituency, while the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has retained its sitting MLA M Gopinath.
Political pundits claim the entry of AIMIM candidate will ensure splitting of the Muslim vote in the constituency which has 33 per cent of minority voters, thus hindering the chances of Azharuddin to bag the seat.
The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also dropped two of its sitting MLAs — Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri of Yakutpura and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of Charminar. Party supremo Owaisi will once again contest from Chandrayangutta and the party is yet to name its candidates from Rajendranagar, Bahadurpura and Jubilee Hills constituencies. The party has so far announced to fight the polls from nine seats in total.
Meanwhile, YSRTP’s Y S Sharmila has decided not to contest the polls this time and instead extend its support to the Congress to ensure that “anti-incumbency votes are not split”.
Sharmila. who had earlier threatened to field candidates from all 119 seats in the state over alleged differences with its ally Congress, on Friday said, “Surveys show that the YSR Telangana Party will dent its vote bank in many constituencies if it goes solo in the polls.
“I appeal to my supporters and YSR fans to support the Congress to dislodge the draconian rule of KCR,” she said.
For the first time since its formation, Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP (Telugu Desam Party) will also not contest the assembly polls this time.