AIMIM likely to win Dabeerpura bypoll

Dabeerpura, which is the only ward in the city that is going to the polls later this week, is all set to witness a tough fight between all the major parties, right from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the Telugu Desam.

Inhabited by middle class, the Dabeerpura locality is one of the oldest residential areas in the city. There are 49,445 registered voters who are likely to cast their votes during the election to the seat which fell vacant after Riyaz Ul-Hassan Effendi got elected as Member of Legislative Council.

The TRS has fielded Raza Ali Mirza while the AlMIM has fielded Mir Basith Ali. The others in the fray are Mirza Akhil Afandi (BJP), Mirza Askar Ali Baig (Congress) and Mohammed Ahmed (TDP).

Local poll pundits say the AIMIM has an edge over the others, with the previous elections seeing the AIMIM candidate bagging closed to 10,000 votes while TRS candidate Zeeshan had come second with over 6,000 votes. The overall polling percentage was around 37 per cent.

The district election authorities have completed the arrangements in 66 polling centres located in 18 buildings spread across the three police station limits of Mirchowk, Dabeerpura, and, Rein Bazaar.



The election will be conducted on January 22 from 7 am to 5 pm. Polling at all the booths would be webcast with the help of 80 personnel who have been roped in for the purpose.

Dabeerpura is dominated by the Shia sect of the Muslim community and their votes are the deciding factor in the victory. This is the reason why most of the political parties have fielded a candidate from the sect. On Monday, as the election campaign came to an end, all political parties made last minute attempts to convince the voters to exercise their franchise in their favour.

The TRS party is banking on the schemes and developmental activity taken up by the party across the State while the AIMIM is reaching out to the voters pointing out at the prevailing situation in the country apart from the works taken up by it in the area.

Meanwhile, the police are making elaborate arrangements by deploying additional officials from other wings such as the Detective Department, Task Force and City Police Headquarters to monitor the election process. As usual, the police will have its Striking Force, Special Striking Force and mufti parties apart from the patrolling teams. The police will set up check posts on the roads leading to Dabeerpura to prevent entry of unsocial elements in the area.