“Many times, during the rainy season, we have to evacuate our houses in the dead of the night because of the rising water. All elected representatives know about this issue, but they do nothing. We have been voting for the BRS. However, we want change to see what the Congress does,” says Raju, a resident of the area.
Jubilee Hills, which falls under the Hyderabad district of Telangana, is an area of contrasts. Home to popular actors (Film Nagar is part of Jubilee Hills) and sportspersons, the wide roads and Instagrammable cafes do not reflect the true picture of the assembly constituency. Inside the colonies, garbage lies in heaps and there is a pressing need to solve the issue of waterlogging. It is to be noted that due to its proximity to Old City, a sizable chunk (33 per cent) of voters are from the Muslim community. The voting pattern changes as one moves from the posh colonies towards Tolichowki.
“Do you see this electricity pole in front of the drain? When the water rises, half of it is submerged. We live in perpetual fear that a child might get electrocuted. We have been complaining for 10 years. They come and make some stop-gap arrangements like throwing soil to elevate the area, but the water again washes the layer away. Garbage in the water blocks every outlet in a matter of hours,” said a woman from the same colony.
The politics
At the entrance of the colony, there is a bust of P Janardhana Reddy, a popular Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh. The statue was unveiled by his son and former Congress MLA, P Vishnu Vardhan Reddy. Last month, he jumped ship to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi after the Jubilee Hills election ticket went to well-known cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin. Two weeks ago, Azharuddin was given anticipatory bail in the fund embezzlement case of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.
Vishnu Vardhan Reddy won the seat in 2009 but conceded defeat to BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath in 2014 and 2018. While the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its state executive member Lankala Deepak Reddy from the seat, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s candidate is Md Rashed Farazuddin, a corporator from Shaikpet. This is the first assembly election for both Azharuddin and Farazuddin. The AIMIM candidate is expected to split the minority vote that might have gone to the Congress. Due to these factors, Jubilee Hills is a keenly watched assembly segment.
What makes the fight more interesting is influential independent candidate Naveen Yadav joining the Congress. He was fielded by AIMIM in 2014 and received the second-highest number of votes. As an independent contestant, he stood third in 2018.
More voices
In another colony, a resident informs that they have decided to vote for BRS’s Maganti Gopinath en masse. “We are very happy with the development work he has done,” says the local. Pink scarves outside a few of the shops show their allegiance. A woman who sits sewing outside a tailor shop says that her vote will go to the car symbol.
Md Zaheer, who owns a car repair shop, says that he will vote for the AIMIM. “The candidate has done good work as a corporator. We are choosing the kite symbol.”
An elderly resident, Mushtaq, who owns an automobile parts shop, says: “Does it really matter who we vote for? All parties are the same. They promise the sun and the moon but hardly work on the ground. There is an anti-incumbency wave against the BRS, but we cannot forget that they are providing 24-hour electricity. They have done some good work, but a few want to vote for a new party.”
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