In August this year, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) inaugurated, in the sprawling B.R. Ambedkar Secretariat complex, a tastefully designed mosque. For many, this move marked the possible dousing of a controversy in an election year. For, it was in 2020 that the Telangana government razed, along with the old secretariat buildings, two mosques (and a temple) that existed within the complex. While there were murmurs of a possible demolition of the old secretariat, the flattening of the mosques was unexpected. This sent shockwaves within the Muslim community and thus followed sporadic low-key demonstrations.The reconstruction of these mosques, given that the state goes to the polls, appears an attempt to mollify the Muslim community – which constitutes 12.68% of the state’s population of 3.51 crore. At the event, Rao was flanked by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and the Muslim clergy, including Mufti Khaleel Ahmed who heads the Jamia Nizamia, an influential seminary founded in 1872. Muftis (qualified clerics) at the Jamia’s Darul Ifta (Fatwa Centre) have been issuing fatwas (jurisprudential opinions), which is why the mufti’s presence was significant at the event.“Not one, but I saw four muftis there (at the inauguration). When muftis prayed there, the question (of validity of prayers) does not arise,” Owaisi told the media, hours after the inauguration, giving validity to the event by invoking Mufti Khaleel’s “service of six decades” to the faith. Owaisi also compared KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government with that of the Congress, and pointed out that the former had reconstructed the mosque after demolishing it, a promise that the Congress failed to keep after the Babri Masjid was razed. It is a comparison he continues to reiterate.AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi. Photo: Twitter/@asadowaisiEven as the elections, slated for November 30, inch closer, Owaisi and his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi have been launching salvos, primarily against the Congress, all the while defending KCR. This is symptomatic of the dilemma a section of the Muslim community finds itself in – whether to support the BRS for a third term, despite having certain reservations, or voting to bring the Congress back in power.“There were meetings and consultations about what the BRS government did, and didn’t do for the Muslims. A document called ‘Muslim Declaration 2023’ was released,” said Hyderabad-based social activist Khalida Parveen. Figuring at the top of the list was the BRS’s unkept promise of 12% reservations for Muslims.It was in 2014 that the BRS [then TRS] supremo, near Shadnagar, a town about 40 km from Hyderabad, had pledged to accord 12% reservations for Muslims. This unkept promise has remained a key talking point with those who question the BRS.“In our meetings, we saw Muslims from across the state were unhappy with KCR. Of course, the 12% reservation promise was not kept. Other issues like low representation of Muslims in the assembly are there,” claimed Parveen. While the state has 119 assembly constituencies, the BRS’s candidates list has only three Muslims.Interestingly, it was the BRS government that constituted a Commission of Inquiry to study the socio-economic conditions of the Muslim community. Comprising development economist Amir Ullah Khan, academician Abdul Shaban, and headed by former civil servant G. Sudhir, the commission’s report – which was released in 2016 – made a case for reservations to Muslims. But before making this recommendation, the Commission noted that in the Telangana government’s 23 departments, the share of Muslim employees was about 7.36%. This was not in proportion to the state’s Muslim population of 12.36%. It also underscored the low representation of Muslims in the bureaucracy.Making a case for reservations, the Commission stated:“It has also been found that under–representation of Muslims is acute in departments where there are large numbers of employees, or the departments which are strategic in nature. For instance, administrative service, Home, Education and Welfare Departments. These four sectors/departments are crucial for include development and have relatively high under-representation of Muslims.” Some activists and the public in general on several occasions have expressed their displeasure, and cite this as an example of how the BRS has taken the Muslim community for granted.Clarifying the party’s position during an assembly session, CM KCR reiterated that the assembly had passed a resolution in the house for the reservations. It was the Union government that kept it pending. Another resolution was also passed and sent, in case the Union government keeps the issue hanging further.S.Q. Masood, an activist who was not a part of the ‘Muslim Declaration 2023’, said that the BRS was “dangling a carrot” in front of the community. “In 2019, KCR spoke about redoing the resolution exercise. Does this mean the BRS doesn’t have a solid legal strategy? But, the 12% reservation is one of many issues. A win for the KCR government is that they have kept law and order in check, and no major communal issue has taken place,” he said.The upholding of communal amity, and keeping a check on possibilities of communal conflagration, according to many, is crucial and works in favour of the BRS government. The fact that T. Raja Singh, the controversial BJP legislator currently under suspension, was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act for his derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad is a case in point. The move was lauded as the BRS’s policy of zero tolerance for communalism.सबके धर्म, भाषा, संस्कृति, खान-पान अलग-अलग हो सकते है। लेकिन तेलंगाना में ये सभी एकजुट और मजबूत दिखाई देते हैं। यह मुख्य मंत्री चंद्रशेखर राव की विरासत का असर है, जो अनेकता में एकता को प्रदर्शित करती है। यहाँ हर दिल को सुकून मिलता है। यहाँ हर रूह को सुरूर मिलता है। यह तेलंगाना… pic.twitter.com/dXnjtB2Y78— BRS Party (@BRSparty) October 18, 2023An analyst, requesting anonymity, said, “While there is an effort to convince the Muslims of Telangana to vote for the Congress in the November elections, one has to understand that there were many communal riots in the 1980s and 1990s in Hyderabad when that party was in power. There have been no major riots with BRS in power. Communities were keeping count of how many people were killed in which community [earlier].” The keeping of count later came to be known as the “communal scoreboard”. The last major riot was in 2010, when clashes erupted in Moosabowli, a neighbourhood of Hyderabad’s Old City, after disagreements arose between two communities over the removal of religious buntings, he said.Fragmentation may benefit BJPWhat worries a section of Muslims is the fragmentation of the community’s vote. This vote, split between the Congress and the BRS, could potentially be devastating. An office bearer of an influential socio-religious organisation who did not wish to be identified said that while the Congress may be in a “slightly better” position in Telangana given the party’s win in Karnataka and a feeling of anti-incumbency against the BRS, there was no Congress wave. “The Congress in Telangana is an unproven entity, and appears weak at the grassroots,” he said. “On the other hand, the BRS may be facing anti-incumbency, but the party is strong at the grassroots. If the Muslim vote is divided between the BRS and Congress, it would lead to problems in constituencies in the composite Nizamabad, and Adilabad districts, where their vote is important, and benefit the BJP.”While there may be an impression that the BJP is weakened, this is likely not the case, the analyst said. The BJP vote bank will continue to hold its own. “G. Kishan Reddy is the new BJP president, but (former BJP president) Bandi Sanjay continues to enjoy popularity, especially among the youth. The party is likely to add a few more seats in the upcoming elections,” he said.Professor Afroz Alam, who heads the Department of Political Science at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University and has been studying the election climate with his team, said that the Congress versus BRS narrative in Telangana is largely class-based.“There appears to be a clear divide. Elite Muslims are tilting towards the Congress. Among rural Muslims who are beneficiaries of government schemes, there is a preference for KCR,” Alam said. He opined that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and the recent win of the Congress in Karnataka have had a bearing on the “elites’” opinion.“There is little or no anti-incumbency against BRS, but there is discontent with some MLAs. In Karnataka, everybody wanted to defeat the BJP. In Telangana, that situation does not apply,” Alam added.