Madhavi Latha - CM in the making

In the maze of Indian electoral politics, there are constituencies that routinely draw the national eye — not necessarily because of who wins, but because of what those battles represent. Hyderabad is one such constituency. And this year, the candidacy of Madhavi Latha, fielded by the BJP against AIMIM’s formidable Asaduddin Owaisi, has turned the city’s electoral contest into something much more than a routine political skirmish.

On the surface, this may look like a mismatch. The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has been AIMIM’s stronghold for four decades, tightly held by the Owaisi family since Salahuddin Owaisi's entry in 1984. Asaduddin Owaisi himself has won it five times consecutively since 2004. The demographics — a substantial Muslim population and AIMIM’s deeply entrenched grassroots presence — seem to make the outcome all but predetermined.

But to reduce Madhavi Latha’s campaign to a mere symbolic challenge is to miss the wider undercurrent of what it represents. Her candidacy is not just a political contest; it’s a statement — one that seeks to disrupt the long-held assumptions about who contests from Hyderabad, how elections are fought here, and what voters expect from their leaders.

Latha, a woman in a constituency where male political dominance has long been the norm, has injected a new energy into the city's electoral landscape. Her background in social service and her articulate campaign — combining door-to-door outreach with sharp messaging on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) — have captured the imagination of segments of the electorate that are usually dismissed as politically indifferent: women, youth, and Hindu middle-class voters.

More importantly, she has opened a dialogue in a constituency where political discourse often collapses into the binary of communal identity. By positioning herself as a candidate speaking on issues such as education, women's safety, employment, and development, Latha is attempting to shift the narrative — from vote banks to vision. Whether that shift sticks is an open question. But the effort itself is disruptive in a constructive sense.

Historically, Hyderabad was not always a one-party domain. In the early decades post-Independence, the seat was largely held by Hindu representatives, with Congress’s Ahmed Mohiuddin winning the first-ever election in 1952. Until the late 1970s, parties like Congress and the Janata Party had significant traction. It was only with the rise of Salahuddin Owaisi that AIMIM turned the seat into its fortress. In that context, Latha's emergence marks a return — however tentative — to the idea that Hyderabad is not destined to be politically monolithic.

Skeptics may argue that her campaign has little chance of unseating Owaisi. That may well be true in the arithmetic of 2024. But politics is not always about immediate victory. It is also about introducing ideas, building constituencies of hope, and signalling that political spaces are not permanently locked. Her presence in the race, regardless of the result, has already changed the tone and tenor of the conversation.

That, in itself, is progress.

If anything, Latha’s campaign is a reminder of the democratic elasticity of Indian politics — that even so-called “safe seats” can become arenas for new narratives. For Hyderabad, a city proud of its pluralism and modern aspirations, the real question is whether its politics can evolve beyond predictable loyalties to engage with emerging aspirations.

Madhavi Latha may or may not win. But she has already succeeded in making Hyderabad’s politics more interesting, more competitive, and perhaps, more democratic.

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