MIM makes it seven again, survives anxious moments

Hyderabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Sunday survived some periodic scares that at one time threatened to derail its plans to retain its stranglehold on Hyderabad city, particularly the Old City constituencies, but by the time the counting of votes ended, it retained its seven seats.

It, however, lost from Jubilee Hills and Rajendrangar and became the only party to have retained all seats it held in the outgoing Telangana Assembly with seven of its nine candidates winning from the Hyderabad district.

Majid Hussain (Nampally), Ahmed Balala (Malakpet), Akbaruddin Owaisi (Chandrayanagutta), Mir Zulfeqar Ali (Charminar), Kausar Mohinuddin (Karwan), Jaffer Hussain Mehraj (Yakutpura), and Muhammad Mubeen (Bahadurpura) helped the party hold on to the seven seats.

Its candidates, M. Swamy Yadav from Rajendranagar and Md. Rashed Farazuddin from Jubilee Hills, ended up fourth in the two constituencies.

Of the winners, three - Majid Hussain, Zulfeqar Ali, and Mubeen – will enter the Legislative Assembly as MLAs for the first time.

During the counting process, the MIM fortunes kept swinging in a see-saw battle with Congress’s Feroz Khan in Nampally and Yakutpura with MBT’s Amjed Ullah Khan with the latter contest going till the last round of counting.

Earlier in the day, the BJP candidate from Karwan gave some anxious moments taking a lead during the afternoon, but that proved to be short-lived with Kausar Mohiuddin eventually prevailing in the contest.