Till the other day, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi was treating the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) as its friendly party.
In fact, TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made it clear to the media that MIM was a friendly party and if necessary, the TRS would seek the MIM support to capture the Mayor seat after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.
Apparently, the TRS boss was given the impression that his party might not get the absolute majority and it may have to depend on the MIM to capture the GHMC.
However, the voters of Hyderabad sprang a surprise on him by giving a resounding victory to the TRS so much so that it won’t have to depend on the MIM to bag the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts.
In fact, the MIM tally has come down drastically even in its own bastion of Old City – its number has fallen from 45 seats in 2009 to 33 seats this time. The TRS won several of the MIM seats as the Muslims had favoured KCR than Owaisi brothers.
Now, the question doing rounds in the media circles is whether the TRS will dump the MIM from its friendly-party status.
Till the other day, the TRS goverment was in a dilemma to act against the MIM which had resorted to violence against the rivals including TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy and Congress leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Md Shabbir Ali and also subsequent attack on the house of TRS Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and assault on his son.
While all the Opposition parties have united in condemning the assault on the Congress leaders and demanded stern action against the MIM leaders, including arrest of the party’s MP Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother and MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, the TRS surprisingly adopted a nonchalant attitude despite attack on the Deputy Chief Minister’s house and his son.
Now that the TRS has won majority on its own in the GHMC elections, it might cut off its relations with the Owaisi brothers. Who knows, in the long run, the TRS might even get the support of the BJP and join the Union Cabinet, say sources.