Mohd Azharuddin finally debuts on home turf in high-profile Jubilee Hills constituency

District: Hyderabad

MLA: Maganti Gopinath (Kamma)

Reservation: GEN

Total Voters: 3,56,995

Booths: 329

Urban Voters: 100 %

Rural Voters: 0 %

Male: 52 %

Female: 47 %

Caste & Religious Demography

Gen + BC: 92 %

SC: 6 %

ST: 2 %

Hindu: 63 %

Muslim: 33 %

Others : 4 %

Candidates Profile

Maganti Gopinath (BRS)

Born on June 2, 1963, Gopinath graduated with a degree in business administration from Osmania University. He started his political journey with the TDP. From 2014-2018, he served as the Jubilee Hills TDP MLA. He was successful in roping in cadres. In 2017, he spearheaded a membership drive for the party in Hyderabad and enrolled 60,000 people. Gopinath joined the TRS (now BRS) and won from the constituency yet again.

Mohammed Azharuddin (Congress)

After a fabled and controversial career as Indian cricket team’s captain, followed by a stint as an MP from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, Azharuddin is once again padding up to return to active politics by contesting on a Congress ticket in Jubilee HIlls. Despite his poor stint as a Lok Sabha MP, Azhar once again contested for a Parliament seat in 2014 in Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency of Rajasthan. He lost the election due to the Modi wave. While he remained in the party, Azhar was determined to contest from the Secunderabad constituency in 2019 but the party denied him a ticket. The Congress, however, named him as one of the working presidents in Telangana. The aim of the Congress is to win areas such as Erragadda, Rehmatnagar, Yousufguda, and Shaikpet where there is considerable Muslim population.

Lankala Deepak Reddy (BJP)

The BJP has nominated its executive committee member Lankala Deepak Reddy. He started his career as a student leader in 1994 and worked as a party member for the TDP. He was nominated as the general secretary of the party with a few other legal posts in the TDP. He has also been part of welfare awareness programmes such as blood donation and HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns. He aspired to contest from the Khairatabad seat on a TDP ticket in 2018 but due to the Congress-TDP alliance, he was denied a ticket. This time, he wishes to contest from the BJP.

Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin (AIMIM),

He is a municipal corporator with a lot of pull in the Shaikpet division. He first contested the municipal elections in Shaikpet in 2016 and secured the seat as the Corporator by a narrow margin of 658 votes. In the 2020 GHMC polls, he won with a massive majority. Farazuddin was also a member of the GHMC’s standing committee. The move by the AIMIM to contest in Jubilee Hills has been seen by the Congress as an attempt to cut into the minority vote bank of the grand old party.

Geography

Jubilee Hills is a combination of uber-rich voters of the State along with large slum dwellers who constitute 60 per cent of the voters. Jubilee HIlls has a sizable population of minority voters, Prior to the 2009 delimitation exercise, Jubilee Hills was part of the Khairathabad constituency. Of the six GHMC divisions, the TRS won two, the BJP won two and the AIMIM won two seats in the municipal elections in 2020.

2014 election analysis

• Jubilee Hills constituency is dominated by BC & Muslim communities. There was infighting between TDP candidates Gopinath and Mohammed Saleem respectively from the beginning. The TDP gave the MLA ticket to Gopinath and the MLC ticket to Saleem.
• Naveen Yadav of the AIMM secured 25 per cent vote share which reduced the the TDP’s votes. The AIMIM and the BRS had a tacit understanding to reduce the TDP's Muslim vote bank.
• Votes of the Kamma community and Andhra settlers were split between the TDP and the Congress.
• P Vishuvardhan Reddy (PVR) of the Congress lost, because he didn't fulfill his promises of building pakka houses in Borabanda, improving the drainage system and supplying drinking water. Even then, PVR gave a tight fight using his father P Janardhan Reddy's legacy which played a key role in maintaining his cadre and loyalists.
• The BRS’s major votes came from Telangana movement sympathisers and the BC community.
• Vinay Reddy contested on behalf of the YSRCP and he pulled a few Reddy and Christian community votes.

2018 election analysis

• The AIMIM didn’t contest this election and their share of Muslim votes were split between the BRS and the Congress. Brahmins and Kapus support the BRS.
• In 2016, both the leaders from the TDP i.e Maganti Gopinath and Mohammed Saleem joined the BRS.
• Gopinath was allotted the task of consolidating voters from slums in Karmika Nagar in Rahmath Nagar division and Yellareddyguda. He has a strong network and is well-connected in Borabanda and Rahamat Nagar areas as he had close ties with Baba Fasiuddin, the former Deputy Mayor of Hyderabad.
• BC leader Naveen Yadav contested independently and managed to win 12 per cent votes.
• Vishnuvardhan Reddy contested from the Congress. Though his family are the founder trustees of the Jubilee Hills Peddamma Gudi and managed to pull voters, the PJR sentiment didn't work. While the Congress got better numbers than the previous election due to alliance with the TDP, their Muslim vote share reduced as the AIMIM supported the BRS split the votes.

Current Situation

• Maganti Gopinath, with his influence, secured three divisions in the GHMC elections with the help of their indirect alliance partner AIMIM. He was successful in allocating the old age Asara pensions in the segment and building the overhead tanks in the constituency to solve drinking water issues in the segment.
• Lankala Deepak Reddy, who was in the TDP, joined the BJP after the last election and worked on poaching anti-MLA cadres into the BJP.
• Vishnuvardhan Reddy joined the BRS after being denied a ticket.
• Naveen Yadav joined the Congress and decided to support Mohd Azharuddin. Naveen was named the constituency incharge.

Key Local Issues:

• Poor drainage system due to water logging in small-sized pipes
• Open sewage in slums
• No parking spots in bastis