It’s a fight between a personality and a party in Nampally Assembly constituency.
Mohammad Feroz Khan, who is contesting on TDP ticket, is proving to be a nightmare for the six-decade old Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. His entry into the politics and photo-finish performance in 2009 elections forced the MIM to engage all its energies on Nampally to turn the results in its favour. Unlike other opponents, the MIM has been chasing Feroz Khan since the declaration of results of 2009 elections.
Feroz Khan contested the 2009 elections as a Praja Rajyam Party candidate and lost by a little over 6,000 votes. The margin was thin and MIM had its own calculations to assume that Feroz Khan would emerge as the strongest opponent in 2014 elections. While the MIM leaders were busy conspiring to stop the political growth of Feroz Khan, the latter focused all his energies on strengthening his ties with the people of Nampally constituency. He took up several welfare programmes and started building a strong cadre base. He established cadre at the booth level and stayed in touch with the voters for the last five years. He supplied drinking water in some areas of the Nampally for almost five yeas. However, the MIM leaders tried to stop this before the elections.
Meanwhile, Feroz Khan joined the Congress party following PRP’s merger. Within short time he emerged as one of most popular Congress leader of City Congress. This increased the worries of MIM. As the elections reached near, the MIM launched a silent battle to stop the tirade of Feroz Khan. It began by intimidating the supporters of Feroz Khan. The workers were allegedly threatened of dire consequences if they support Feroz Khan. Two recent murders were also attributed to the political rivalry between Feroz Khan and MIM. Incidentally, both the youth who were murdered were strong followers of Feroz Khan.
Having failed to demoralise Feroz Khan’s cadre, the MIM began lobbying to stop him indirectly. According to sources, senior leaders of MIM pressurised the Congress leadership for not giving party ticket to Feroz Khan from Nampally seat. Their efforts worked and Feroz Khan was denied a ticket. The MIM then sealed all other options. Following reports that Feroz Khan might contest on TRS ticket, T Harish Rao and K Tarakarama Rao were reportedly approached with a request asking them not to give ticket to Feroz Khan. They obliged in order to maintain good relationship with the MIM leaders.
Left with no other option, Feroz Khan was planning to contest as an independent candidate from Nampally. This option too could not be materialised as the MIM kept three other persons named “Feroz Khan” with the same spelling ready to field them as independents. The presence of four “Feroz Khans” in the list would have created confusion among the voters leading to the split of votes and defeat of real Feroz Khan. Further, Feroz Khan would have had only few days to publicise his symbol.
A few leaders tried for Feroz Khan’s entry into the YSR Congress Party. This too was foiled by the MIM leaders who reportedly warned Jagan Mohan Reddy of admitting him into the party.
As a last resort, Feroz Khan approached the Telugu Desam Party for the ticket. Meanwhile, the TDP entered into an alliance with the BJP, making things more difficult for Feroz Khan. However, the MIM leaders have reportedly requested BJP State President G Kishan Reddy to stop Feroz Khan’s ticket from Nampally. These efforts failed and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu gave ticket to Feroz Khan.
The MIM is now trying to capatalise on negative votes by citing TDP’s alliance with the BJP to defeat Feroz Khan. While Feroz Khan is listing out the services that he rendered and his future plans for the constituency, the MIM is primarily banking on emotional factors like TDP-BJP alliance.
The MIM has nominated former Deputy Mayor Jaffer Hussain Meraj from the constituency. It dropped sitting MLA Virasat Rasool Khan for non-performance. The change of candidate itself is being viewed as a confession by the party that it failed to deliver in Nampally.
Groupism and internal differences have also hit the MIM very badly in Nampally constituency. GHMC Mayor Mohammad Majid Hussain, who was elected from Ahmed Nagar division in GHMC elections, was a strong aspirant of MIM ticket from Nampally seat. Another corporator Mohammad Nazeeruddin too was expecting the ticket. However, both the corporators, who enjoyed a strong cadre base were denied tickets and the choice went in favour of Meraj Hussain. According to sources, the MIM cadre in these two key divisions is not actively supporting Meraj Hussain.
Although MIM leader Yasser Arafat is actively participating in Meraj Hussain’s campaign, Majid Hussain and Nazeeruddin’s absence is being felt by the cadre. Interestingly, the party is not even using the pictures of Majid Hussain in most of the advertisements being published in newspapers for Nampally Assembly segment.
Meanwhile, Feroz Khan has intensified his campaign and hasbeen requesting the voters to judge him on his performance and plans. Although several people initially opposed his decision to contest on TDP ticket, later they understood the circumstances that pushed him to this level. “I honestly wanted to serve the people. But the MIM did not allow me to stick to one party. They used all their resources and contest to influence the top leadership of those parties to deny me a ticket from Nampally. They literally chased me and my workers everywhere. This is completely against the spirit of democracy. They should allow a free and fair contest and let the people take their own decision. I’m determined to serve the people of Nampally constituency and will do so, come what may,” Feroz Khan said.