Triple talaq law, door-to-door & Madhavi Latha — how BJP is trying break Owaisi spell on Hyderabad

Muslim women in Hyderabad’s Old City say they haven’t heard about Madhavi Latha, but the BJP candidate says she's determined to champion their rights in AIMIM stronghold.

Madhavi Latha | ANI

Hyderabad: Iftar parties, door-to-door campaigns, Eid milap, and triple talaq — the BJP’s Telangana unit is pulling out all the stops to reach out to the state’s Muslim voters.

But the most surprising card up their sleeve was the decision to field Madhavi Latha to contest for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. A newcomer in Telangana’s political landscape, the activist and chairperson of Hyderabad-based Virinchi Hospitals is up against veteran parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi.

Her campaign is based not just on the development of the area but also on empowering Muslim women, which, she said, Owaisi has not been sensitive to as a man.

“I am there with the women and residents completely. It’s just that Asadji envies that a core-Hindutva personality like me would work with Pasmanda Muslims and families in Hyderabad,” Latha told ThePrint. “It’s a big surprise for him that I turned out to be more secular than him.”

AIMIM’s Owaisi has held the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for the last twenty years. Before that, his father, Salahuddin Owaisi, held it for twenty years.

But the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to put up what many say is a lost fight — trying to breach Owaisi’s core vote bank on the back of the triple talaq law and the promise for women empowerment.

Listing a litany of problems — from instant triple talaq to the “sale” of Muslim women abroad to insensitivity to the needs of young Muslim girls in a conservative society — Latha said that Islamic scriptures and the Quran have been routinely misinterpreted and misused by a patriarchal Muslim society.

“People keep saying Hyderabad is a minority constituency. So, shouldn’t they understand the sensitivity of a minority girl?” asked Latha, adding that Hyderabad is one of the top five constituencies in India in terms of Muslim women population. “Why hasn’t Asadji looked into the sensitivity of a hijab girl going and staying in a residential school?”

Latha burst into the scene last weekend after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated her on X for making “solid points with logic and passion” on an episode of the TV Show, Aap Ki Adalat. But, she’s still relatively unknown in Hyderabad, where residents of Old City are only now hearing of her.

Madhavi Latha Ji, your ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ episode is exceptional. You’ve made very solid points and also done so with logic and passion. My best wishes to you.

I also urge everyone to watch the repeat telecast of this programme at 10 AM or 10 PM today. You all will find it very…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2024

“Madhavi Latha has grabbed both national and local attention,” said political analyst and writer Ghanta Chakrapani. “Everyone knows Owaisi as a national leader for Muslims and a good parliamentarian. But now, by fielding a media savvy Madhavi Latha, Hyderabad has emerged in the media as a key constituency — when in reality it perhaps isn’t.”

The Madhavi Latha factor 

While the BJP’s workers are preparing to hit the ground running after Eid to conduct a robust door-to-door campaign in Hyderabad’s Old City, Muslim women in Yakutpura said they have never heard of Madhavi Latha.

“We haven’t heard of her, we know of Raja Singh,” said a pregnant 26-year-old resident, who requested not to be named.

She was referring to the BJP MLA T. Raja Singh.

“It doesn’t matter who the Muslim woman votes for — we don’t get anything anyway. Plus, Modi will get the vote from those who support BJP, not Madhavi Latha,” she added.

Choosing Madhavi Latha for the Hyderabad seat has also come as a surprise for political analysts.

“Hyderabad has never come across this kind of candidate,” said Chakrapani, who was also the first chairman of Telangana State Public Service Commission. “Politically speaking, she’s not a sound bet for the BJP. But, she’s definitely been able to grab headlines.”

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat includes seven legislative segments, all located in the older part of the city — and 59% of the population is Muslim. BJP’s Raja Singh holds the only non-AIMIM legislative seat within the larger Hyderabadi constituency — six out of seven are with AIMIM.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has been an AIMIM bastion for four decades, consistently electing an Owaisi to Parliament. But Latha is determined to change that. The BJP, she said, will enter every lane and bylane of the Old City to demand justice and fair treatment for all.

“Since most Muslims in Hyderabad are not well educated, they can’t understand the true translation of Islamic scriptures, which are in Arabic,” said Latha, adding that many segments of the population have been fed a narrative of orthodoxy. “The Quran also respects women a lot.”

She said she has been working with Pasmanda Muslims and other families in Hyderabad’s Old City. She said she has organised education camps, paid for students’ college fees — irrespective of whether they are Hindu or Muslim — and arranged medical camps for free, natural deliveries of children and free medicines.

Experts cautioned that her real impact depends on the candidate that the Congress fields from the Hyderabad seat. The Congress hasn’t fielded a candidate yet.

This is something that Latha sees as proof of MIM-Congress collusion. Owaisi is a “direct supporter” of the Congress, said Latha, and not the “b-team of the BJP” as he stands accused of.

“We’re almost approaching the date of nomination, and till now, Congress hasn’t declared its candidate. And even if they do, it’ll be just a dummy candidate — they have declared they are openly working together,” she said. “This actually tells us that now they are (a) little scared — or probably shit scared that we from the BJP have decided to go ahead on bringing the truth out.”

BJP’s door-to-door campaign

But Madhavi Latha is restricted to the Hyderabad seat. The BJP’s state unit has a larger plan for Telangana’s Muslims.

Party workers have received instructions to discuss women’s issues and development and all that Modi and the government have done for women. The focus will be on all schemes the PM has introduced for women, according to BJP spokesperson and minority morcha member Mir Firasath Ali Baqri.

“We are going door-to-door with the mission of getting Modiji re-elected for the third time. Our workers and minority morcha are targeting women especially,” said the BJP’s state president and Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G. Kishan Reddy. “The triple talaq issue is something we are raising awareness about.”

The 2019 Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage Act) — or the triple talaq law — is their trump card. Madhavi Latha has reportedly said she has worked with several Muslim women groups on triple talaq as a social activist. But several women residents of Yakutpura and Talab Katta told ThePrint they have not heard of her.

“The triple talaq law strikes a chord with the grievances that Muslim women face,” said Baqri, adding that the bill not only captures the nuances of Sunni and Shia practices but has also reduced the crime rate. “The women themselves can feel the difference in how things have changed in the last five years. They have a voice now and can sort out marriage issues with confidence.”

But others are not so confident.

“In the name of triple talaq, they are trying to reach out to Muslim women. But as of now, there’s no indication that the Muslim vote is turning towards the BJP,” said political analyst K. Nageshwar, a professor at Osmania University and earlier elected as an independent to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

He said as the BJP tries to play up the Hindu-Muslim divide across Telangana, it will be hard to garner the support of the minority Muslim community as the two are mutually contradictory.

“In a place like Hyderabad, where there’s already a solid Muslim vote consolidation, I highly doubt the BJP will make inroads,” said Nageshwar.

Muslim women in Hyderabad’s Old City have been sceptical of the BJP. The BRS has done more for them and the area, and they list its COVID relief schemes, medical camps, financial assistance for gas cylinders, and the Dignity Housing Project as measures that have helped them.

On the other hand, they are also dismissive of the MIM, which, they said, has not helped develop the area.

“But Owaisi is the only Muslim who openly raises his voice for us and all Muslims in India,” says one 30-year-old resident of Malakpet. “It’s too early to say how Congress has helped the state. But MIM should do more for us. Anyway, votes will go to whoever has the most money,” she said, with a laugh.

BJP hosting iftar parties 

The uphill battle hasn’t stopped the BJP from trying to reach out to the rest of the state’s Muslim population.

The BJP held an iftar party — a Dawat-e-Iftar — earlier this week on 7 April at their state headquarters, welcoming Hindu and Muslim voters alike. Nearly 500 people attended, according to BJP spokesperson and minority morcha member Mir Firasath Ali Baqri.

“On behalf of the BJP in Telangana, we organised a Dawat-e-Iftar. It was extremely well-attended,” said Baqri. “And, of course, we served both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food!”

It’s a popular practice for political parties in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to invite their Muslim electorate for a feast. But it’s especially significant for the BJP — which came second in seat share in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls — to woo Muslims and community leaders in Telangana.

After celebrating Ugadi (Telugu New Year) at the headquarters on 9 April, Reddy also released a Ramzan Eid poster with Baqri. The state unit also has plans to host another get-together after Eid.

Baqri said he’s been organising an iftar party or at least an occasion to mark Ramzan every year, but it takes on a special meaning in election years.

The AIMIM regularly conducts iftar parties during Ramzan, and the BRS and Congress organise at least one large-scale feast annually. Iftar parties are also an opportunity to show cross-party solidarity — in March, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi shared the stage at an iftar party and announced they “will have to fight together against those who spread hatred”.

A Dawat-e-Iftar was also organised on 8 April by the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society, which sets up and manages residential schools for minorities across the state. Both the Congress and AIMIM leaders attended, including Owaisi, Ranjith Reddy, and former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin.

The BJP is hoping to make major gains in Telangana, where Muslims form about 13 percent of the state’s population. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP emerged second after the BRS in terms of seat share — winning four seats against the BRS’s nine seats. The Congress won three, and AIMIM one. In the assembly elections, the BJP recorded a jump in vote share in 2023 when it won eight seats after winning only one in 2018.

In 2018, a case was filed against MLA T. Raja Singh for saying that those who hold iftar parties are begging for votes.

“Those who sit with them (those attending Iftar) are ‘vote ke bhikhari (beggars for vote)’. I think differently,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “How can I attend an Iftar or host one for those who talk of killing Hindus?” he said.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)