Telangana Election Results: Akbaruddin Owaisi aka 'Chhoti Sherwani' wins Chandrayangutta by a huge majority

If one put together the votes won by candidates from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Congress, Bahujana Left Party, Majlis Bachao Tahreek, Shiv Sena, and the eight Independent candidates, and the NOTA votes in Telangana’s Chandrayangutta constituency, doubled the number of all the above votes, the result is still less than the number of votes that All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM’s) Akbaruddin Owaisi has won.

Akbaruddin — the brother of AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi — is leading with 95,311 votes, whereas the votes polled in favour of all his opponents put together comes to 44,918 — less than half of Owaisi’s votes.

Hailing from a strong political pedigree, Akbaruddin is best known for his oratorical skills in Urdu and English — an ability he assiduously flaunts with an excellent sense of timing.

His performances are inflammatory when he is addressing the masses and appealing to their emotions, and very well-researched and articulate in the Assembly — abundant with facts and backed by data.

In fact, the elder Owaisi brother has acknowledged in an interview that Akbaruddin is a better orator than him — and Asaduddin has been known to defend India in international platforms.

While one speaks the language of the masses, the other is a master at wooing the classes. Akbaruddin (L) with his brother Asaduddin Owaisi. (R) (Photo: Facebook)

Considered unsophisticated, even called crude, as opposed to his London-educated, suave and cultured elder brother, Akbaruddin has been the centre of controversies for communally-charged statements. In 2007, he had threatened the Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who was then assaulted by AIMIM legislators while she was in Hyderabad to release the Telugu translation of her book Shodh.

In 2012, a rally he conducted in Nirmal constituency got him arrested for 40 days for hate speech. There are now 14 criminal cases against Akbaruddin, for promoting enmity between different religious groups and disobeying law and order authorities.

Known for his oratorical skills, Akbaruddin appeals to emotion in public rallies and logic in the Assembly. (Photo: Facebook)

No matter the number of cases slapped against him, the controversies surrounding him, or his alleged religious polarisation tactics — the voters of Chandrayangutta have delivered their mandate.

For them, it will always be their Chhoti Sherwani — as Akbaruddin is known in the local parlance.

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