JEDDAH: Indian expatriates here from the south Indian city of Hyderabad have been celebrating the victory of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) in the recent Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.

The MIM held on to its vote bank by winning 44 of the 60 seats it contested. The party’s victory was particularly significant in view of the fact that there was a massive wave in favor of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) which won 99 seats in the 150-member corporation.

The MIM had some kind of an understanding with the TRS but it had been locked into an intense battle with the Congress Party. In the run-up to the municipal elections, there was fierce animosity between Congress and the MIM.

In 2009, the two parties had fought the civic elections together and shared power. Congress had 55 seats in the previous corporation and the MIM 43. This time Congress was decimated, winning only two seats. And despite a record tally of 44 seats, the MIM will not have the mayoral position.

At the celebrations in Jeddah, Bazm-e-Ittehad President Ahmeduddin Owaisi, uncle of MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, thanked the people of Hyderabad, especially the youngsters, for reposing their faith in the party. He recalled the difficult circumstances in which his father, Abdul Wahed Owaisi, took over the reins of the party.

“I am talking about the 1950s when there was no one to don the party’s mantle. Everybody was fearful and scared of associating himself with the MIM. This was a time when the Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state became part of the Indian Union,” he said.

According to Owaisi, his father was jailed for nearly 11 months for reviving the party and the community, and during his absence, it was his elder brother, the late Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, who took charge and infused new life into the party.

“During those tense days, my older brother would make the rounds of the city on his Norton motorbike crisscrossing the old city along its narrow streets and organizing the community,” he said. “It was the sacrifices of those leaders that led to the creation of the party’s base.”

He said Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi changed the electoral fortunes of the party. “My illustrious nephews widened the party’s base, expanding its appeal and provided it with an all-India status,” he said.

Owaisi feels that Congress “committed a blunder” by taking onboard Mohammed Pahelwan, one of the accused in the 2011 murderous assault on Akbaruddin Owaisi. “We are political rivals and everything is fair in politics but to admit someone into your party who is accused of an assassination attempt on your rival is a new low in politics,” he said. “This incensed the community.”

He said the community’s anger can be gauged by the fact that the MIM won in the constituency of Pahelwan. (From Barkas, the MIM’s Shabana Begum emerged victorious with a comfortable margin.)

The other important aspect of the corporation elections, as highlighted by Asaduddin Owaisi, was the victory of the MIM’s non-Muslim candidate against Congress’ Muslim candidate in the Puranapul division. Of the 44 MIM winners, four are non-Muslims.

The MIM supporters in Jeddah distributed sweets and offered thanksgiving prayers in Makkah and Madinah.

Prominent among those who spoke and attended the event were Dr. Syed Ali Mahmood, Mohammed Ubaidur Rehman, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Syed Khaja Viqaruddin, Mohammad Yousufuddin Amjad, Mohammed Shameem Kausar, Mohammed Abdul Qayyum, Arif Quraishi and Asrar Siddiqui.