Talks of change shroud AIMIM bastion of Hyderabad after Cong finds space

It is 7pm, and the streets of old Hyderabad are abuzz. Every narrow lane is twinkling with lights, every square inch taken up by an amorphous crowd; families shopping, some out for an evening snack, or people just returning home after work.

- Dipankar Ghose

Syed Alam Shah, 28, is part of this third group, but in many other aspects, his life is one of firsts. For three generations, his family has packaged and sold itr; he was the first to go to Australia to study engineering. His family has always lived and worked in the old city; yet every day he drives his car, past the Charminar, navigating the jewellery stores in Shalibanda, to the expressways and glass facades of new Hi-tech city, where he works as an IT engineer. There is only one thing that he has never done different from the rest, until now. He points to the unique sign that hangs above Purana Pul Road, the outline of a kite in fluorescent green.

"I have always voted for the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen). This time, I'm thinking about it," he said.

Hyderabad has always been central to Telangana's identity. It is a city that saw the most strident protests for the creation of the new state in 2014. It is by far its largest urban centre, a bustling metropolis in its own right, nurtured by multiple chief ministers. It is a symbol for syncretism, with more than 40% of its population Muslim. It is perhaps the most important district politically; it has 15 of the 119 seats in the state.

In those 15 seats, for the last 15 years, there has been one constant. Everything else has changed; in 2018 the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now known as Bharat Rashtra Samithi) won 7 and the Bharatiya Janata Party 1; in 2014, the BJP won 4, Telugu Desam Party 3, the TRS 1; in 2009 (undivided Andhra Pradesh), the Congress won 7 and the BJP won 1. But over all these three elections, the AIMIM won 7 seats in Hyderabad's biggest city and always the same seats -Malakpet, Nampally, Karwan, Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, and Bahadurpura. Still looking at the sign, Syed Alam Shah said, "It has always been the one political constant in our lives."