MIM stronghold within BJP grasp: Bandi

HYDERABAD: The Old City of Hyderabad, which has been an All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) stronghold for decades, is well within the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) grasp, according to its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. “The question of our party not being serious about the Old City does not arise,” Sanjay said.

He said there was a lot of support in the Old City for the BJP, particularly from women and the educated. “People are tired of MIM’s gundagiri,” he said.

During a chat with reporters on Saturday, Sanjay said that for his party, it was not about Hindus versus Muslims in the Old City of Hyderabad. “This is not about Hinduism or Islam. This is about the development of the Old City. Why has the MIM not been able to develop the Old City? Where are the new companies or investments in the Old City? Why is there a lack of proper education for the people in that part of Hyderabad,” Sanjay asked.

He proceeded to answer his own questions saying that the Old City and its residents were left out of development activities because of MIM leaders led by the Owaisi family did not cared about the people but only about themselves. He said the people in the Old City had begun talking about how they had been left behind compared to the rest of Hyderabad.

Sanjay said if the response from the people to the two-day visit of Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was any indication, the BJP was all set to make serious inroads into the AIMIM bastion. “The BJP will field a candidate from the minority community if it finds a strong contender for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat,” Sanjay said, adding that his party would also help Hindu families who left their homes in the Old City areas on account of what he described as ‘MIM’s excesses’, return to their homes.