BJP confident of defeating Owaisi from Hyderabad LS

HYDERABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have set its heart on winning a big prize –the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat — in the 2024 general elections.

Party’s senior leader Dr K. Laxman, and a member of the BJP’s Parliamentary Board, told reporters on Friday, “Our goal this time is to win the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.”

Responding to questions at a press meet, Dr Laxman, a Rajya Sabha member and BJP OBC Morcha chief, indicated that winning from Hyderabad would not be an impossible task for his party. “They said we cannot win in Azamgarh and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, but we did. There, more than half of the population is Muslim. It is not about a community, but about how the Narendra Modi government delivers welfare and services to all sections of the population. We will win from Hyderabad,” he asserted.

The BJP won the recent byelections in these two constituencies in UP, which were previously held by the Samajwadi Party.

Dr Laxman also stated that the party would choose its candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat based on the candidate's chances of winning. “Whoever the candidate is, it will be someone who has worked for everyone, and not just one section of the society,” he said.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has won the Hyderabad seat in 10 general elections since 1984, with Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi winning six times in a row, followed by the current Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, continuing the AIMIM tradition of winning from Hyderabad four times straight.

Of the seven Assembly segments that comprise the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, six were won by the AIMIM, and one, Goshamahal, was won by BJP’s D. Raja Singh in the last Assembly elections.