In a surprising outcome, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM) delivered a major blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by winning the Hyderabad local body MLC elections. MIM candidate Mirza Riaz Hassan secured 63 out of the 88 votes polled, defeating BJP’s Gowtham Rao, who managed only 25 votes.
Out of the total 112 eligible voters, only 88 cast their votes. Notably, both the Congress and Telangana RashtraSamithi (TRS) chose not to participate in the election, which had initially raised BJP’s hopes of cross-voting. However, the results came as a shock, with MIM securing a dominant majority.
Following the defeat, BJP accused both TRS and Congress of indirectly supporting MIM, suggesting that their absence helped consolidate votes in MIM’s favor. The BJP’s strategy to gain from the non-participation of the two opposition parties clearly backfired.
