Rohith Vemula suicide set to effect Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls

HYDERABAD | BENGALURU: The death of research scholar Rohith Vemula and the protests that followed are set to impact the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections scheduled for Feburary 2. Dalit and Muslims, who comprise 50 per cent of the GHMC area, could be sharply polarised against the BJP-Telugu Desam Party combine and may favour an informal understanding between the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the All India Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen (MIM).

The TRS is hoping to win about 70 of the 150 seats of the corporation. "They were expected to win about 40 before this incident happened. By maintaining a very careful distance from the episode, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has done a balancing act and not alienated anyone," a political analyst, who declined to be named, told ET.

A senior bureaucrat overseeing the elections of the GHMC said that as per intelligence reports, the TRS, followed by the MIM and the Congress, to a smaller extent, would benefit from the incident. "The Dalits who were willing to consider the BJP and the TDP have now consolidated against them. MIM was always expected to win 45 seats in the old city area, now it may go up to 50," he added.

TRS-MIM will benefit from the absence of BJP’s biggest leader of Hyderabad, Bandaru Dattatreya from the campaign. Since Dattatreya is an accused in the FIR filed on Vemula’s death, he has kept away from the city. "He is popular among people and is the Secunderabad MP. BJP’s chances have been hit because he is not there," a TRS leader pointed out.

Politicians have been making a beeline to the Hyderabad Central University, where a memorial stone has been put up for Rohith Vemula.