The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi, her heavyweight rival for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, slammed the “vulgar, obscene, and provocative” motion. The polling within the constituency is due on 13 Could.
Latha maintains that it was doctored — she wasn’t aiming at a mosque, though the viral clip makes it look as such.
“I wasn’t aiming at the masjid! It’s a fake video that’s being circulated!” she says, exhibiting her model of the video on her telephone.
Sultan, a resident of Hyderabad’s Malakpet, continues his line of questioning. “If you get elected, will Muslims in Hyderabad benefit?” he asks. “Your party’s ideology is for a Hindu rashtra (nation), that’s what people say. Don’t feel bad, I’m just asking a question.”
However Latha seems thrilled. “I want you to ask these questions!” she says, earlier than answering every one in every of them. The complete interplay lasts three minutes. Sultan thanks Latha, and she or he continues on her approach.
“I was going home and saw her walking by, so I wanted to ask her my questions — and find out how she feels about Muslims,” says Sultan afterwards. He’d seen the viral video Thursday and was disturbed by it.
“When I asked her, a parliamentary candidate, if the country’s Muslims should be afraid, she categorically said no. And she’s like, a good orator and public speaker. But I can’t yet tell if she’s from the BJP’s naram dal (soft faction) or garam dal (radical faction). Let’s see. But the point is, she stopped and answered my questions to my face. That’s a good thing, especially for me as a voter,” Sultan tells ThePrint.
Like Sultan, many onlookers in Malakpet agree that Latha’s sudden visibility is uncommon and thrilling. Most don’t know who she is, bear in mind her identify, and even know which political get together she’s from — however they positively discover her.
Her focus, Latha says, is on creating the world, empowering girls, and liberating the world of alleged violence. She’s not shy about answering questions on the BJP’s stance in the direction of Muslims — she doesn’t await questions like legislation pupil Sultan’s to proclaim that the Citizenship (Modification) Act (CAA)-Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC) will not be for Indian Muslims, however “outsiders” just like the Rohingyas.
Or that Indian Muslims should not “terrorists”, however some Pakistanis are. She will’t communicate for educated Muslims, however she needs to be a voice for downtrodden Pasmanda Muslims and ensure they get “justice”.
“I don’t know who she is, never seen her before,” says 57-year-old Khairunnisa, who can’t cease grinning whereas clutching the flyer Latha has pressed into her palms.
Khairunnisa had simply received into an autorickshaw to go to her daughter’s home when Latha’s group was passing her by — Latha abruptly caught her head into the auto and exchanged a couple of phrases with Khairunnisa, telling her to vote for her as a substitute of Owaisi as a result of as a lady, she’ll shield her pursuits. “But she seems very nice even though she seems important!”
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Decided to be seen
Latha has been happening a door-to-door marketing campaign in Hyderabad’s Previous Metropolis to fulfill voters personally. Friday, the day Owaisi filed his nomination papers, Latha was within the coronary heart of his stronghold.
Her brisk padayatra seems like a bigger group than it truly is due to her Z-security standing. Moreover bodyguards, 24 native police personnel accompany her by Malakpet’s empty lanes, as most residents have retreated indoors to beat the warmth.
“I don’t [feel] a threat from the people here, whether they are Hindus or Muslims,” Latha tells ThePrint as she takes a break at a voter’s home, wiping sweat off her forehead. However she says she nonetheless feels the necessity for safety in Hyderabad’s previous metropolis.
Latha says she is campaigning for Hindus and Pasmanda Muslims to be free from the MIM’s “tyranny,” and ship them “justice.” She claims that residents in Previous Metropolis are intimidated and threatened by Owaisi’s AIMIM, and she or he’s decided to deliver them precise change and improvement.
Razia, who was strolling to a retailer, was abruptly swept up by Latha’s group for a couple of seconds. She seems disoriented, left holding Latha’s flyer, having briefly met the potential parliamentarian. “I’ve been seeing her a lot lately in WhatsApp videos and on television. I didn’t know who she was before,” she says, shrugging. “She seems interested in improving the area, which is new.”
The heightened visibility is a crucial cornerstone of Latha’s marketing campaign, particularly in an space she claims has been intentionally uncared for. Considered one of her aides asks a shopkeeper when was the final time he remembers Owaisi visiting the world — and is glad to notice that Ahmed, the shopkeeper, solely remembers being visited by AIMIM get together employees. An AIMIM poster is on the wall exterior his store, which he says somebody put up lately in a single day.
Political analysts say Hyderabad has by no means seen a candidate like Latha earlier than, and her media savviness is what has propelled her to nationwide consideration — in addition to make Hyderabad appear to be a better battle than it truly is.
The seat has been an Owaisi stronghold for 4 a long time — Asaduddin Owaisi has been MP for 20 years, earlier than which his father, the late Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, held it for one other 20 years.
Latha doesn’t suppose it’s a problem to intention for the Muslim vote in Hyderabad, though she is a relative newcomer on the political scene. The chairperson of Hyderabad-based Virinchi Hospitals, Latha claims she has been working as an activist in Previous Metropolis to “empower Muslim women.”
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat contains seven legislative segments, all situated within the older a part of the town — and 59 % of the inhabitants is Muslim. The BJP’s Raja Singh holds the one non-AIMIM legislative seat throughout the bigger Hyderabad constituency — six out of seven are with AIMIM. Latha needs to concentrate on the Hindu and Pasmanda Muslim vote particularly.
She dismisses the truth that Hyderabad has seen relative communal concord for many years. “Owaisi sits in a palace and provokes the aam junta (common man) to fight among themselves. No one has the courage to bring out the truth of what’s been happening in Hyderabad. But I will,” says Latha emphatically.
Galvanising the BJP
Latha begins to spherical up the day’s padayatra at a Valmiki colony in Previous Metropolis. Earlier than her final cease at a Shiva temple underneath development, she stops for a fast press convention at an area BJP get together employee’s home.
The press collect exterior, whereas she sits indoors and punctiliously goes by the BJP’s manifesto in Telugu. She takes handwritten notes, sometimes asking an aide to assist her translate a protracted Telugu phrase.
When a reporter enters and asks her to present them a byte — they’ve to go to cowl Owaisi’s nomination — she smiles indulgently and continues taking notes. Then she shortly chugs a glass of buttermilk earlier than heading exterior to carry her press convention.
She’s the centre of the motion, sitting between native BJP leaders — the Moosarambagh corporator on her left and native BJP spokesperson on the best— each fully silent.
She talks in regards to the get together’s manifesto earlier than doing what she’s actually good at, taking questions. Her voice quivers with emotion on command, eyes brimming with tears when speaking about injustice.
The primary query of the day is how Latha feels about 5.41 lakh voters being faraway from the electoral rolls — she doesn’t belief the Larger Hyderabad Municipal Company (GHMC), she says, however will wait and see whether or not it’s “bogus votes” which were deleted from the rolls or “Hindu votes.”
Contained in the get together employee’s home, whereas Latha is holding forth exterior, speak turns to how she’s been the much-needed vitality for the native BJP cadre. “She’s the only candidate to counter the MIM, the only chance Hyderabad has,” says one get together volunteer.
“There is finally someone willing to raise their voice in both Dakhni and Telugu in Hyderabad!” says another person.
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Voters nonetheless unconvinced
Wearing a white cotton sari, purple shirt, and purple trainers — all topped off with a saffron sash and wrists filled with prayer beads — Latha strikes by Malakpet’s lanes with ease. She appears hottest with girls and youngsters, interacting with as many as attainable.
Many kids be a part of her because the morning progresses. By the top of the afternoon, a gaggle of 5 Hindu boys have been coached into chanting “Jabse aayi Madhavi Latha, tabse Owaisi laapataa! (Ever since Madhavi Latha arrived, Owaisi has been missing).”
Most individuals appear {that a} candidate is definitely campaigning of their space, even when they don’t know what she stands for.
The legislation pupil, Sultan, thinks this might have an effect on Pasmanda Muslims, however doesn’t suppose liberal Muslims like himself will vote for the BJP due to its Hindutva agenda. Sultan himself thinks Owaisi is like “the Muslim RSS”, however doesn’t suppose the BJP is a viable counter-option.
She has extra success among the many previous metropolis’s Dalits, the place many Valmiki voters are already aware of the BJP’s agenda. And even when her politics isn’t making a splash, her assured look is.
“Just now, that lady — what was her name again?” asks Nandakumari, who lives in a Valmiki slum within the Previous Metropolis and is an AIMIM supporter. “Ah yes, Madhavi Latha. I saw her on YouTube. Her way of talking, her support for women, visiting every galli here to say this, all of it is good to watch. It’s good for women’s power!”
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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