Hyderabad: Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, commented on the political dynamics in the Jubilee Hills by-election. He noted that both the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) seem to be learning politics from the AIMIM despite their public disputes.
Sanjay criticized Rahul Gandhi for claiming that the BJP and AIMIM are allied. He questioned Gandhi’s stance after AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi supported the Congress candidate in Jubilee Hills.
Sanjay expressed confidence that the BJP would win the election, suggesting voters would send a message to the other parties through their votes. He shared these thoughts on social media.
Naveen Yadav, the Congress candidate, met with Owaisi before filing his nomination for the November 11 by-election. Yadav was joined by Mohammed Azharuddin, a former cricketer and Congress leader who previously ran unsuccessfully in the constituency.
Owaisi criticized the BRS for neglecting Jubilee Hills despite representing it for a decade. He highlighted the area’s poor conditions, including slums and inadequate services, and called the by-election a chance for real development.
The by-election was triggered by the death of BRS’s Maganti Gopinath. His wife, Sunitha Gopinath, is now the BRS candidate. Congress chose Yadav, who once ran on an AIMIM ticket, to contest the seat.
Owaisi alleged that BRS votes went to the BJP in the last elections. He urged Yadav to unite communities to stop the BJP’s rise in Jubilee Hills, part of the Secunderabad parliamentary area.
Yadav initially contested Jubilee Hills with AIMIM in 2014 but lost to Gopinath. He ran again in 2018 as an independent, finishing third. In 2023, he joined Congress, but Azharuddin was preferred as the candidate, losing to Gopinath by over 16,000 votes. The BJP’s L. Deepak Reddy was third, and AIMIM’s Rashed Farazuddin fourth. Reddy will run again in the upcoming by-election.
