Waisi's party's election symbol is a green kite, which is called 'moth' in Hindi.
The chances of that kite fluttering on the shores of Madhabilatar – or that Hyderabad will see the 'stinging moth' – are certainly slim.
But a strong vote fight in the narrative of religion might shake the uncomfortable reputation of both the parties – that they are secret supporters of each other – a bit!
(Voting in Hyderabad will be held in the fourth phase of India's Lok Sabha elections on May 13. Counting will be held simultaneously with the rest of the country on June 4)
About four and a half hundred years old, the city of Hyderabad, home to the iconic Charminar, the Mecca Masjid and the Ghinji 'Old City' area around it, is home to two-thirds of Muslim residents. Founded by the Qutb Shahi dynasty on the Deccan Plateau, the city was long under the rule of the Mughals and Nizams, so Hyderabad has also been a major center of Islamic culture and lifestyle in India for many years.
This Hyderabad seat has been represented in the Parliament of India continuously for the past forty years by the Yasi family, founders of the political party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In the city, however, everyone calls the party as 'Majlis'.
Sultan Salahuddin Waisi was the MP of Hyderabad from 1984 to 2004. His eldest son, Asaduddin Salahuddin Waisi, has been the Hyderabad MP for the past twenty years after he retired from active politics due to age.
This time too he is contesting from the same seat, and coincidentally is stepping into Owaisi 55 on the same polling day (May 13) in the city.
Since 2004, Waisi's margin of victory in Hyderabad has also increased steadily. The first time he contested the Lok Sabha polls, he won by lakhs of votes, and in 2019, that margin increased to 2 lakh 82 thousand.
In the last two decades, Owaisi has not only made himself unstoppable in Hyderabad, but has emerged as one of the foremost leaders of the Muslim community in India as well.
The Supreme Court's controversial verdict on Ayodhya, the bill in Parliament to ban triple talaq, the detention of Muslim youth suspected of being militants without trial or the initiative to introduce the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country – are the myriad issues of interest to the Muslim community who have been the first or loudest to protest. , he must be Asaduddin Owaisi.
Some even say that once the most influential organization of Indian Muslims, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board was single-handedly surpassed by this politician. However, there are many criticisms of him at the political level.
In this year's Lok Sabha elections, the ruling party in India, the BJP, has decided that they will not give a 'walkover' to Ehen Asaduddin Waisi in the Hyderabad seat.
Even before the election dates were announced in the country, they announced that social activist, industrialist and Bharatnatyam dancer Kompela Madhbeelta – a total newcomer to politics – would contest against Waisi from the Hyderabad seat.
How he got the BJP's nomination in a high-profile seat like Hyderabad is not very clear.
But after Madhveela's name was announced, Prime Minister Modi himself effusively praised her, RSS cadres are working day and night to promote Madhveela - and the BJP is running an energetic and passionate campaign at the Hyderabad center that has never been seen before.
As the Hindutva card is being used very subtly in this campaign, Madhveela is making no mistake in trying to woo the votes of Muslim women in particular.
Meanwhile, there has been an uproar over an allegation that a roadside mosque was the target of an 'imaginary arrow' fired from the Ramnavami procession.
An FIR has been filed against him for disturbing communal harmony, due to which the BJP candidate also appeared at the police station.
The communal debate in the hotly contested Abhay city has been fueled by a newly released movie called 'Razakar' - which details the 'tyranny and torture' carried out by the Nizam's Muslim militia during the very last phase of the Nizam's rule.
Although critics are describing it as an outrageous 'propaganda film' like 'The Kerala Story' or 'Kashmir Files', the fact is that 'Razakar' is running rampant in all the multiplexes and cinemas in Hyderabad.
Many people are even saying that all levels of Islamophobia have exceeded "Razakar".
All in all, the election battle for Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency has taken a completely different dimension this time – the high-voltage campaign war is definitely tinged with communalism.
'Naqib-e-Millat' or 'Vote-Katua'?
Asaduddin Waisi's followers and party supporters in Hyderabad also called him 'Naqeeb-e-Millat'. This word means community leader.
The title befits him as he has been relentlessly campaigning on various issues for the Muslim community for a long time – at least among Waisi's followers there is no doubt about that.
However, in the field of national politics, Asaduddin YC has another identity, that of 'Vote-Katua' or 'BJP's B-Team'.
In fact, since he took AIMIM party beyond Hyderabad to Maharashtra, Trying to spread it in different states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal or Karnataka – he has been hearing this slander ever since.
Parties like the Congress, the Samajwadi Party or the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which have a strong base among Muslims, by dividing the Muslim vote, Owaisi's party is actually losing them to the benefit of the BJP - this is the main charge against him.
It is these groups that describe Asaduddin Waisi as vote-katua or BJP's B-team, a charge which Waisi has always strongly denied. But there is no doubt that he is a character who is both praised and despised in the country's politics.
He also once told the BBC, “From a very young age, I heard RSS goons chanting dirty slogans in front of the house. I went to jail protesting them."
"So at least I don't have to learn from Congress how to deal with BJP-RSS!"
In fact, AIMIM was not a part of the alliance formed by many opposition parties of the country, including the Congress, before this election under the name of 'India'. Owaisi did not show his face in any meeting of the India alliance.
But Shahid Meo, a professor of sociology at Osmania University in Hyderabad, thinks that no matter the controversy about Owaisi in national politics, at least he is Shahenshah for the Muslims of Hyderabad!
"The Owaisi family is a symbol of a political dynasty in this city," Professor Meo told BBC Bengal.
“And not just his role as a politician or MP, scholarships for meritorious students in family engineering colleges or admission of poor Muslim patients in trust hospitals – he has created an ecosystem in the Old City that even today the voters of Hyderabad do not know how to say Owaisi. "says Shahid Mio.
However, Owaisi has also been jailed in the past for allegedly providing legal aid to five Muslim youths involved in the Islamic State's alleged 'terror module'. He has also been criticized for supporting various conservative aspects of Islamic life.
The same Asaduddin Owaisi has also recommended that government subsidies for Hajj for Muslim pilgrims in India be waived and the money be spent on the education of Muslim girls. His strong stance against the demand to ban beef in the country is also well known.
In this election campaign, Owaisi stood in front of a beef shop in a street in Hyderabad and asked the seller, “Is everything going well? Cut it, cut it!”
The video instantly went viral as usual, and boosted his popularity among his voters.
Asaduddin Owaisi, a barrister and father of six who graduated from Lincoln's Inn in London, is also an accomplished parliamentarian.
The eloquent MP asked almost four times more questions in the assembly than an average MP, also received the Best MP award in the 15th Lok Sabha.
This time he is fighting for the post of MP or MLA in the seventh election of his life.
In the last thirty years, he hardly ever thought of winning the polls, but there is no doubt that he has to face a very different challenge this time in Hyderabad!
The Hinduism of Madhavilat
When the name of Kompela Madhveelta was announced in the list of candidates released by the BJP on March 2, many old leaders of the party raised their eyebrows and asked, "Who is she again?"
In fact, when Madhbeelta's name was announced as the candidate for Hyderabad, she was not even a member of the BJP. He has officially joined the team recently.
However, his closeness with BJP's ideological guardian RSS has been going on for a long time. Recently, she also introduced herself as the 'daughter of RSS'.
A source close to the RSS told BBC Bengal that it was Indresh Kumar, the head of the Sangh's wing called 'Muslim Rashtriya Manch' and senior RSS leader, who recommended Madhabilata's name for the Hyderabad seat.
In fact, when the law was being drafted to ban triple talaq, Madhveela was involved in creating many 'case studies' talking to victimized Muslim women.
With her long experience working with Muslim women, Madhveela also had extensive research on how to compensate or rehabilitate divorced women and served as valuable 'input' in the drafting of the Act.
Based on that, even though he is a candidate of BJP, he is now seeking votes especially from the Muslim women of Hyderabad.
Soon after her name was announced as a candidate, Madhbeelata was invited to a national television show 'Up Ki Kathali' and popular TV anchor Rajat Sharma interrogated her in the kathagara set up for the event.
The day after the show aired, Prime Minister Modi tweeted, “An amazing episode. Madhbeeltaji, you have raised some strong points with great logic and passion. Greetings to you!”
He also urged the countrymen to watch the repeat telecast of that episode. Madhabilata also became a household name at the national level almost overnight.
Hence it is not difficult to understand that the 'political launching' of Madhavilat in Hyderabad was a well-planned and staged move.
Madhabilatha, however, is also the chairperson of Telangana's well-known Birinchi Hospital Group, a public administration expert and a Bharatnatyam dancer. While filing his nomination, he has declared a huge property worth Rs 221 crore in his name.
This exceptional woman has never sent her three children to school, sending them to IITs through 'home schooling'.
But he grew up in a very lower-middle class family.
This exceptional woman has never sent her three children to school, sending them to IITs through 'home schooling'.
But he grew up in a very lower-middle class family. He was born into a very ordinary family in Yakutpura's Santoshnagar Colony in the Old City of Hyderabad, a fact he occasionally mentions during campaigns.
Ever since he became a candidate, he has been campaigning in the alleys of the city, saying one thing over and over again, that YC won every time by millions of votes, mostly on the basis of bogus or bogus votes.
If it is stopped, it is possible for BJP to win in Hyderabad, Madhveela claims.
In fact, in the last one-and-a-half years, the Election Commission has removed hundreds of thousands of names from the voters' list in Hyderabad - many of whom may no longer be alive, or who no longer live there. This move gives BJP a lot of confidence.
However, on Ramnavami day (April 17) the controversy is raging over the 'arrow' 'shot' by Madhabilatar at the BJP rally.
That evening, Madhabilata, standing on a hooded car, shot an imaginary arrow into the sky in the pose of the Hindu god Ramachandra.
Later in the video, it was seen that Siddiambar Bazar Mosque was very close to where he aimed the arrow.
An FIR has also been registered against Madhveelta on the charge that he is poisoning the communal environment by posing as an arrow-thrower in the mosque. He also appeared at the police station as per rules.
Hyderabad's senior journalist TS Sudhir, however, agreed to give the 'benefit of doubt' to Madhabeela in this incident.
“If you watch the viral video carefully, you will understand that when Madhbeelata is doing that pose, there is no mosque in her frame. When the camera then pans twenty to thirty degrees, only the mosque is visible."
“And he is also a Bharatanatyam artiste. So if on Ramchandra's birthday he throws darts like Ramchandra in a dance pose to enthuse the devotees, then perhaps he cannot be blamed," he told BBC Bangla.
But TS Sudheer agrees that this fictional arrow has brought the narrative of religion more strongly into the Hyderabad polls.
When 'Razakar' is in cinemas
While the high-voltage campaign of Owaisi vs. Madhveelta is going on in the streets, a controversial multilingual movie - fully titled 'Rajakar: A Silent Genocide of Hyderabad' - is playing in the cinema halls of the city.
After India's independence in 1947, Hyderabad remained under the Nizam's rule for a whole year.
In September 1948, the then Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel sent troops to Hyderabad and annexed Hyderabad to India through Operation Polo.
This film is based on the story of the brutality of the 'Rajakar', a militia loyal to the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, on the Hindu subjects of the city at that time.
The Razakar force was headed by Kashim Razvi, who was also the leader of the AIMIM party's political predecessor, the MIM.
But there is no room for doubt that this film was made with a political motive. Rajakar's film is also produced by a top BJP leader from Telangana, Gudur Narayan Reddy.
The makers of the film initially intended to release it before the assembly elections in Telangana last year. There was strong objection to the two trailers of 'Razacare' then, but the film was not released at that time.
Finally, just a day before the announcement of the date of Lok Sabha polls, this film was released in various cities of the country, including Hyderabad.
Many activists also filed Public Interest Litigation to block the release of 'Razakare', but the Telangana High Court did not take it into consideration.
Prominent South Indian film critic Swaroop Kodur has no qualms about saying that Razakar is in fact an agapashtala 'propaganda movie' - where history is grossly distorted.
"Each Muslim character in the film has a look of violence in their eyes, bursting into demonic glee after slitting the throats of Hindus or raping Hindu women," Swarup Kodur told the BBC.
"Again, there is no mention of at least 30,000 to 40,000 Muslims who were slaughtered after the liberation of Hyderabad", he added.
The Newsminute portal also described Razaka's film as part of a 'radical Hindutva project'.
"The film shows every Muslim as a tragic villain and every Hindu almost as a saint, inciting communal tension on a very thick scale", they clearly stated.
Meanwhile, a few days after the release of this film, Home Minister Amit Shah came to Hyderabad to campaign for votes and said, "Sardar Patel made Hyderabad Rajakar-free seventy-five years ago, now the same responsibility is on your shoulders!"
No one in Hyderabad had any difficulty understanding that the Owaisi family he meant by today's 'Rajakar'.
If released, he would move to Pakistan, on the condition that when Kashim Razvi was released from prison in 1957, Asaduddin Waisi's grandfather, Abdul Waheed Waisi, succeeded him as president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
The burden of Kashim Rajvi's tainted legacy is still borne by the Owaisi family.
That is why YC still regularly says in various public meetings, "Who do you want to call Razakar? Remember, Razakar Kashim Rajvi and his Sangopangos left for Pakistan a long time ago.”
“And those of us who remain in India are true patriots. We stayed here because we consider this country our own", he still has to say, proving his patriotism.
What could be the result of the vote in Hyderabad?
Despite BJP's well-organized campaigning, large public meetings and door-to-door begging for votes, Asaduddin Waisi's defeat in Hyderabad would require a major disaster.
AIMIM MLAs now sit in six of the seven assembly constituencies that comprise the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency. Only one remaining seat is occupied by BJP.
And since almost two-thirds of the total voters are Muslims, it is almost impossible to win here without at least some Muslim votes.
That is why Madhbeelata is campaigning in the Muslim neighborhoods of the Old City by biting the soil. He also apologized to anyone who was hurt for 'shooting arrows'.
Moreover, since the Congress and Bharat Rashtriya Samithi candidates are also in the fray, the BJP is hoping that they too will capture some of the Muslim votes of Waisi.
Veteran Telangana political analyst Amarnath K Menon therefore feels that a BJP win in Hyderabad may be 'very, very difficult - but not impossible!'
"In two of the seven constituencies in this center - Nampally and Yakutpura - Yasi's party won by a narrow margin in the assembly elections last December," he told the BBC. At one time it seemed that they would lose both."
“And the Hindu-dominated Gosamahl seat has been held by the BJP for the last ten years. T Raja Singh, known as a Muslim-hating leader, is the legislator there, against whom there are at least 104 criminal cases.”
As a result, he thinks the BJP can win three out of the seven seats – and if it polls fairly well in the remaining four, it can hope to win the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat as well.
Professor Shahid Meo says again, it will be wrong to judge the current Lok Sabha elections by the assembly polls of six months ago.
"But YC himself was not a candidate in the assembly, it should be noted. Asaduddin Waisi standing alone means at least five-seven percent more votes going to him, we have seen this before", he said.
Asaduddin Waisi was a very good fast bowler in his youth, he even played in a national level tournament for the university team of South India.
Borrowing the current IPL terminology, Shahid Mio adds with a laugh, "Madhabeela Barajo might be an 'impact player' against the cricketer Owaisi, but doesn't seem to be able to win the match."
But still the question remains, why Madhveela, whom the BJP considers so promising in their party politics, was pushed into such a tough fight against Waisi in the beginning?
Kompela Madhabilata himself said in response, "By fielding me against Asaduddin Waisi, the BJP has made it clear that Yasi, whoever he is, is not our B-team. We want to defeat him clearly!”
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