From chaos to silence, Jubilee Hills waits for polling after high-voltage campaign

The Jubilee Hills bypoll, though statistically minor, has become a high-stakes political contest in Telangana. With Congress, BRS, BJP and AIMIM all deeply invested, the outcome is seen as a prestige battle and a litmus test for Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

Hyderabad: Statistically, the Jubilee Hills bypoll is inconsequential. It cannot bring down the government. But politically, it is turning out to be one of the most tense and tight battles that the State has witnessed in recent times, as the ruling Congress and the principal opposition, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) which currently holds the seat, are engaged in a no-holds barred slugfest. The campaign ended at 5 pm on Sunday, with all set for polling on Tuesday.

The result, which hinges heavily on 1.3 lakh Muslim voters and a small but potentially influential Telugu film industry workforce, will be known on November 14, and is a matter of prestige for the Congress government. Despite denying that the bypoll is a referendum on his governance, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has pulled out all stops and campaigned non-stop in the high profile constituency.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao has repeatedly stated that Jubilee Hills would mark the beginning of the return of the BRS to power. Revanth Reddy knows this, and also that if the BRS wins here, it will turn into an unstoppable juggernaut that will use the confidence to lift the spirit of its cadre and then run roughshod over the Congress in the forthcoming local body polls.

He is also sure of the fact that a defeat will see his enemies within the Congress, who are already fiercely vocal against him, become all the more bold.

On the other hand, the BJP, which showed in the last GHMC polls that it could muster considerable support from the urban pockets of Greater Hyderabad, is not ready to be seen as an also-ran in Jubilee Hills.

From Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy to Union Minister of State Bandi Sanjay Kumar and State BJP president N Ramchander Rao, the national party’s MPs and MLAs have been shuttling through the narrow bylanes of the bastis and thickly populated colonies of Jubilee Hills campaigning for Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Confident of retaining the seat in the bypoll, necessitated after the death of its sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath, the BRS has called it a referendum on the Congress government’s performance.

The party’s working president KT Rama Rao’s roadshows, campaigning for Gopinath’s widow Maganti Sunitha, have been a highlight of the entire campaign, with videos of Revanth Reddy’s promises being telecast at public meetings, asking the public whether those promises were kept.

His sharp criticism of the HYDRAA demolitions, pointing out that only the BRS ‘Car’ could stop the Congress ‘bulldozer’ has hit a chord with voters. He also made it a point to highlight what the BRS had done for the development of Hyderabad, and Jubilee Hills, with a ‘progress card’ listing out each and every initiative.

Senior leader T Harish Rao, mentioning a silent wave in favour of the BRS, has termed the bye-election an event where four lakh voters will decide the future of four crore people of Telangana. Multiple voter mood and pulse surveys, including one on November 8, have strengthened the silent wave claim.

The bye-election is crucial for the Congress, which drew a blank in Greater Hyderabad in the 2023 polls though it came to power. The Secunderabad Cantonment bypoll helped it open its account, but capturing the BRS stronghold of Jubilee Hills has turned out to be the real litmus test for Revanth Reddy & Co., particularly because the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be heading for elections early next year.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) too has some prestige hinged onto the Jubilee Hills result, especially because the Congress has fielded Naveen Yadav, who had lost to Gopinath earlier and had contested on an AIMIM ticket in the past. Owaisi’s party is supporting Yadav after making its dissent known when the Congress initially had plans to field its 2023 candidate Mohammed Azharuddin this time as well.

In 2023, Gopinath had scored a hat-trick by defeating Azharuddin by a margin of 16,337 votes. The BRS candidate secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes. BJP’s Deepak Reddy had finished third that time with 25,866 votes. AIMIM’s Rashed Farazuddin was fourth with 7,848 votes.

The high-decibel campaign saw caste and religion equations being brought into play by the Congress, which made a last minute desperate attempt to swing Muslim votes by inducting Azharuddin into the State Cabinet. The BJP tried to attack this attempt, even urging the Election Commission not to permit the Cabinet expansion.

In between, Revanth Reddy’s statement that ‘Muslims existed because of Congress’ backfired, with Muslim organisations and leaders demanding an apology.

The remark also triggered sharp exchanges between the two national parties, with Bandi Sanjay Kumar retorting that the Congress and AIMIM were trying to turn Telangana into an Islamic State. His call for the Hindus to form a single vote-bank also triggered controversy, with the BRS lodging a complaint with the Election Commission for a model code violation.

Revanth Reddy had countered Bandi Sanjay, asking whether he would accept that Hindus were not with the BJP, and were against Narendra Modi, if BJP lost the bypoll.

With its historically low voter turnout a major concern for all parties, Jubilee Hills will enjoy a break from the chaos on Monday, before heading to the polling booth on Tuesday.