Hyderabad, April 25 (NationPress) The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has successfully clinched the Telangana Legislative Council seat from the Hyderabad local authorities’ constituency.

In a direct showdown, AIMIM candidate Mirza Riyaz Ul Hassan Effendi outperformed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contender N. Gautham Rao by a margin of 38 votes.

Effendi garnered 63 votes, while Gautham Rao received just 25 votes, according to officials.

This victory is pivotal for AIMIM as it approaches the upcoming elections for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) slated for early next year.

AIMIM has been either governing the municipal body or taking on the role of kingmaker for over four decades.

Of the 112 eligible voters, 88 participated in the MLC election conducted on April 23. The electorate included corporators, MPs, MLAs, and MLCs from the Hyderabad district.

Vote counting commenced at 8 a.m. on Friday at the GHMC headquarters.

With 49 votes, AIMIM was well-positioned to win, and with the backing of the Congress party, which holds 14 votes, Effendi's victory was almost a certainty.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), possessing 20 voters, opted to abstain from the voting process.

The electorate consisted of 81 corporators and 31 ex-officio members (9 MPs, 15 MLAs, and 7 MLCs). AIMIM has 40 corporators and nine ex-officio members (seven MLAs, one MLC, one Lok Sabha MP).

AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, along with his brother and party floor leader in the Telangana Assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi, participated in the voting.

This marks the second term for Effendi as an MLC. His previous six-year term ended last month, alongside the tenures of four other MLCs. In the elections based on the MLAs' quota, Congress secured three seats, while its ally Communist Party of India (CPI) won one seat. The BRS claimed the fifth seat. All candidates were elected unopposed.

Despite AIMIM's interest in fielding a candidate from the MLAs’ quota, the Congress party encouraged them to wait for the MLC election from the Hyderabad local authorities’ constituency and assured its support.

Following this victory, AIMIM's representation in the 40-member Legislative Council has risen to two.

In contrast, BJP’s Gautham Rao claimed that Congress and BRS aided AIMIM in winning the election. He asserted that even though BJP lost in terms of numbers, it achieved a moral victory.

Gautham Rao accused BRS of facilitating AIMIM's victory by abstaining from the election.