GHMC polls: Asaduddin Owaisi has national aspirations but is not contesting even half the seats on home ground; why?

After winning five seats in the Bihar assembly elections, Asaduddin Owaisi is concerned about giving his party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) national party status. This is why Owaisi has also announced his party to expand and make a presence in other states of the country but is contesting elections in the limited confines of his home state Telangana and city Hyderabad. Owaisi's AIMIM has fielded candidates for less than half of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election seats.

Elections are being held for 150 seats of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), where voting is to be held on December 1. Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM party is trying its luck on only 51 municipal councilor seats. Most of the candidates of AIMIM are contesting the councilor's seats in the old Hyderabad area. In this way, Owaisi has fielded only 33 percent of the municipal corporation seats in Hyderabad. Simultaneously, BJP, Congress, and TRS have fielded candidates for all 150 corporator seats.

Asaduddin Owaisi faces tough challenges this time in his stronghold, old Hyderabad, due to KCR and BJP contesting all seats. KCR and Congress have fielded Muslim candidates in many seats in the old Hyderabad area, while the BJP has put a tremendous siege on all seats by removing the Hindu candidates. This is why Owaisi and his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi are working day and night to win their candidates.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is one of the largest municipal corporations in the country. This Municipal Corporation is in 4 districts, which include Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, and Sangareddy. This entire area consists of 24 assembly constituencies, and Telangana has 5 Lok Sabha seats. Asaduddin Owaisi is himself a fourth time MP in one of these Lok Sabha seats. Apart from this, seven MLAs of his party have also been elected to Telangana Assembly from this area. Despite this, Owaisi has fielded only 51 candidates in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, for which the BJP is continuously raising questions.

2016 municipal election equation
In the 2016 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, the TRS won 99 of the 150 wards, while Asaduddin Owaisi's party AIMIM won 44. At the same time, the BJP was able to win only three municipal wards, and the Congress won only in two wards. In this way, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation was captured by KCR's party.

Owaisi's limited scope in Telangana
Asaduddin Owaisi's party AIMIM never contested all the seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and the Telangana Assembly elections. Owaisi's party has never contested more than a dozen seats in all the elections held so far. In the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, Owaisi fielded candidates for 11 seats, out of which seven were won. In 2014, he had contested only eight seats and won all, but in 2018 he lost his Rajendra Nagar seat, where Owaisi and his family own their own house and vote. In 2014 and 2019, his party's candidate Owaisi has not fielded any seat in Andhra Pradesh.

AIMIM equation of rest of the state of the country
Interestingly, even though Asaduddin Owaisi contests elections in a limited range in Hyderabad and Telangana, he tries openly in other countries. In 2019, the Maharashtra assembly elections had fielded candidates for 44 seats, two of which were won. In the Bihar assembly elections, Owaisi had fielded candidates for 21 assembly seats, out of which five have won. Earlier, candidates had fielded 38 seats in UP's 2017 assembly elections. In the December 2019 Jharkhand Assembly elections, Owaisi contested 16 out of 81 seats but could not win a single seat.

After the Bihar elections, he has announced to contest elections in West Bengal and wants to expand his party in Rajasthan. Owaisi's real reason behind this is to get his party registered with the national party. To get the status of a national party, the Central Election Commission has three conditions, one of which has to be fulfilled. The first condition is that two percent of the total seats from at least three states are required in the Lok Sabha elections. The second condition is that the party should have four Lok Sabha seats and have at least six percent votes in four states. Apart from this, it should be recognized as a State Party in at least four states.