A shrill, snide campaign for Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat

Hyderabad Lok Sabha election campaigns escalate with unparliamentary language, controversial gestures, and heated polemics among candidates and parties.

The discourse in the election campaigns for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency has bordered on unparliamentary, to put it mildly.

Apart from the usual barbs exchanged by political parties over civic development, this poll season has seen candidates invoking each other’s parents, making derogatory utterances (allegedly) during door-to-door canvassing, and attacking each other over controversial gestures near places of worship. The polemics are set to heat up further as the polling date of May 13 draws near.

One incident that courted significant controversy was on the day of Ram Navami when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kompella Madhavi Latha mimicked shooting an arrow from a bow near a covered up place of worship. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) latched onto the incident, and criticised the move. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi claimed that the incident exposed the BJP’s mentality of promoting hatred. However, Ms. Latha clarified to sections of the media that she was gesturing the use of ‘Ram Baan’, and was not pointing the imaginary arrow at any place of worship. The incident has become a key talking point in public meetings.

The BJP too sought to hold to account Mr. Owaisi who, during a paidal daura in Nawab Saheb Kunta, a neighbourhood in the Bahadurpura Assembly segment, greeted some butchers at an abattoir, and purportedly said, “Kaat-te raho.” Ms. Latha complained to the Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that the incident was tantamount to encouraging people to consume beef.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ghuspeti (infiltrator) remarks also caused considerable consternation, not only among political leaders but also constituents.

“Both BJP and MIM [AIMIM] candidates and workers have been campaigning hard since the beginning. But the momentum changed after the Ram Navami incident. Both parties began charging each other with hateful comments,” M.A. Wasim, an entrepreneur from Darul Shifa, said.

Meanwhile, in a move that surprised many, Majlis Bachao Tehreek spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan, who found increased popularity during the recent Telangana Assembly elections, decided not to enter the poll fray. During the past few weeks, Mr. Khan sought to position himself as a challenger to Mr. Owaisi. This changed when MBT office-bearer Majeed Ullah Khan, who too fought the Assembly elections earlier, announced that the party would pull back in the larger interest of the Muslim community.