Hyderabad:

Kompella Madhavi Latha, BJP’s firebrand candidate from Hyderabad, faces a police case after a video showed her asking burqa-clad Muslim women at a polling booth to reveal their faces so that she can match them with the photographs on their voter ID cards. 

The case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of the People Act. The Hyderabad Collector’s office has confirmed in a post on X that a case against the BJP candidate has been registered in Malakpet Police Station.

Ms Madhavi Latha is among the most-talked-about candidates in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls that is underway today. She is up against a formidable candidate — four-time MP from Hyderabad and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

#WATCH | Telangana: BJP candidate from Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Madhavi Latha visits a polling booth in the constituency. Voting for the fourth phase of #LokSabhaElections2024 is underway. pic.twitter.com/BlsQXRn80C

— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2024

District Election Officer Ronald Ross earlier told NDTV that police will be registering an FIR against Ms Madhavi Latha because no candidate has the right to lift someone’s veil to check her identity. If there is a suspicion, a candidate can ask the polling officer to verify a voter’s identity, he said.

The BJP candidate, however, has told news agency ANI that a candidate has the right to check voter ID cards. “I am a candidate. As per law, a candidate has the right to check ID cards without facemasks. I am not a man, I am a woman and with a lot of humility, I requested them. If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, it means they are scared,” she said.

Mr Owaisi has not commented on the incident yet, but shared the viral video on his Twitter timeline.

The BJP candidate has alleged discrepancies in voters’ list. “The police personnel seem very dull, they are not active. They are not checking anything. Senior citizen voters are coming here, but their names have been deleted from the list,” she told ANI.

The viral videos are playing out against the backdrop of a polarised contest in Hyderabad, a Muslim-dominated seat and a family stronghold of Asaduddin Owaisi. In the run-up to the election, Ms Madhavi Latha had said she was hopeful of the support of Muslim voters too because the BJP has spoken about triple talaq and jobs for Muslim youngsters. The viral videos and the row surrounding them are likely to hit her outreach to minority voters.

Another 96 seats will go to the polls today as the Lok Sabha elections reach their halfway mark in terms of the number of phases –  three stages of polling have been completed and three more will be left after today. Voters will decide the fate of candidates in 10 states, including all 17 seats in Telangana. Andhra Pradesh will also see voting on all 25 of its Lok Sabha constituencies as well as 175 Assembly seats. Assembly elections will begin in Odisha too.

Here’s a look at some of the key contests:

Asaduddin Owaisi vs Madhavi Latha, Hyderabad

With a four-time sitting MP who is still considered popular contesting again, the electoral battle for Hyderabad would ordinarily not have received much attention. But the heated rhetoric and even theatrics, exemplified by the BJP candidate’s alleged gesture of shooting an imaginary arrow towards a mosque – which has led to a case being filed against her – has made the contest the talk of the town.

In one corner of the ring is All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who has been the MP from the constituency since 2004, and has been increasing the margin of victory each time. He won with a margin of just over 1 lakh votes in 2004, which went up to over 2.8 lakh in the last general elections. Another thing working in his favour is that the Hyderabad constituency is a family stronghold and was held by Mr Owaisi’s father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi since 1984.

In the other corner is Madhavi Latha, chairperson of the Virinchi Hospitals chain. Though she is new to politics, the BJP is banking on her Hindutva credentials, experience as a social activist and its strong organisational base to help her win the constituency. 

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury vs Yusuf Pathan, Baharampur

The Baharampur constituency is one of only two that the Congress had won in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with the remaining 40 being split between the Trinamool (22) and the BJP (18). This time, the Trinamool Congress has fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’ Leader in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Chowdhury has been the MP from Baharampur since 1999 and the Congress is fighting the polls in an alliance with the Left Front. The Congress and the Left Front are also part of the INDIA bloc at the Centre, as is the Trinamool Congress, which is, however, contesting on its own in West Bengal. Despite the alliance, Mr Chowdhury is one of the fiercest critics of the Trinamool Congress and its chairperson and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The constituency is, thus, witnessing a prestige battle.

Yusuf Pathan is making his electoral debut and his brother Irfan Pathan, one of India’s former ace pacers, also campaigned for him. The BJP has fielded Nirmal Kumar Saha, a local surgeon.

Mahua Moitra vs Amrita Roy, Krishnanagar

Two high-profile women candidates are battling it out in the Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has backed Mahua Moitra, who was one of the loudest voices against the BJP in the Lok Sabha but was expelled in December last year after being accused of accepting bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament. 

She had denied all the allegations and the Trinamool Congress, after initially maintaining silence, came out in her support and party chief Mamata Banerjee called her expulsion a “murder of democracy”. Ms Banerjee also held up Ms Moitra’s hand at a rally in support of her earlier this month and a video in which the two leaders were seen dancing had also gone viral.

Ms Moitra, who had won against the BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey by a margin of 60,000 votes last time, is being challenged by Amrita Roy, a member of Krishnanagar’s royal family. People in Krishnanagar still have an emotional connection with the royal family and Ms Roy is affectionately called Rajmata. The BJP’s decision to field her was seen as a surprise but she has emerged as a formidable challenger. 

The CPM candidate is SM Saadi and he may hurt Ms Moitra’s prospects if he cuts into the Muslim vote. Muslims account for 26.76% of the constituency’s population.

Akhilesh Yadav vs Subrat Pathak, Kannauj

With the BJP looking to better its figure of 62 out of 80 constituencies that it had won in 2019, all eyes have been on Uttar Pradesh, parts of which have been voting in every phase of the election. Countering the BJP is the Samajwadi Party, which has tied up with INDIA ally Congress this time, and is fighting 63 seats.

The Samajwadi Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting from the party bastion of Kannauj at the insistence of party workers and the candidate who had been named – Mr Yadav’s nephew Tej Pratap Yadav – had been replaced at the last minute. Kannauj had been won by SP candidates since 1998 but the fortress had been breached by the BJP’s Subrat Pathak in 2019, who had defeated Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav by a margin of about 12,000 votes. 

Kannauj was held by Mr Yadav thrice and his father, and Samajwadi Party founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav, had also been an MP from the seat, making winning it all the more important for the SP chief. 

Subrat Pathak, who is the BJP candidate from the seat again, has compared his contest with Mr Yadav to an India-Pakistan match and said that it will be an interesting one.

New Delhi:

A provocative statement 11 years ago by AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi – the infamous “if police are removed for 15 minutes…” remark seen as a threat to Hindus – has spawned an equally shocking “… it will take us only 15 seconds” reply by BJP leader Navneet Rana, while campaigning for Madhavi Latha, the party’s candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha dominated by Mr Owaisi’s brother, Asaduddin Owaisi.

Ms Rana, a former independent MP from Maharashtra’s Amravati, referred to the 2013 swipe by Akbaruddin Owaisi, and said, “The younger brother said, ‘Remove police for 15 minutes so we can show what we can do’. I want to tell him, ‘It might take you 15 minutes… but it will only take us 15 seconds… “

And in other comments also seen as being in poor taste, she declared Madhavi Latha will “definitely stop Hyderabad from turning into Pakistan” and claimed that anyone voting for either the Congress or the AIMIM would simply be voting in favour of Pakistan.

15 सेकंद लगेगा @AkbarOwaisi_MIM@asadowaisipic.twitter.com/TfEmWhvArX

— Navnit Ravi Rana (Modi Ka Parivar) (@navneetravirana) May 8, 2024

“If you vote for AIMIM and Congress, it goes directly to Pakistan. The kind of ‘AIMIM prem (love)’ and ‘Rahul prem’ Pakistan is showing… Just like Congress that governed country on signals from Pak… the same Pak is today saying they ‘love Congress and AIMIM’.”

A 39-second video clip of the rant by Ms Rana was posted on her X (formerly Twitter) account, and the Owaisi brothers were tagged in the post. The older Owaisi, never one to back down from a fight, responded immediately and dared Ms Rana to follow through.

READ | Asaduddin Owaisi’s “Muslims Use Condoms Most” Reply To PM’s Jab

“I’m telling (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji… give her the 15 seconds. What will she do? Give her the 15 seconds… give her an hour even. We too want to see what they will do. Is there any humanity left in them? Who is scared? We are ready… if someone is making an open call (like this) then so be it. Do it. Who is stopping you?” Mr Owaisi told reporters.

#WATCH | Hyderabad, Telangana: On BJP leader Navnit Ravi Rana’s “15 seconds lagenge” remark in Hyderabad, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi says, “I tell Modi ji – give her 15 seconds. What will you do?…Give her 15 seconds, give her 1 hour. We too want to see if you have any… pic.twitter.com/e1uD3M6nhl

— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2024

The face-off between Ms Rana (and Ms Latha) and Asaduddin Owaisi underlines the high-tension fight for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, which has been held by the AIMIM leader since 2004, and was the bastion of his father, Salahuddin Owaisi from 1984.

The BJP has never won here; in 2019 the party fielded Bhagavanth Rao, who got less than 236,000 votes while Mr Owaisi polled over half a million and a 64 per cent of vote share.

Mr Owaisi has already had one ugly confrontation with his rival for this election.

READ | “Where Did Mosque Come From?”: BJP Candidate On “Imaginary Arrow” Row

Last month, during a Ram Navami rally in Hyderabad, the BJP’s Madhavi Latha pretended to draw and fire an arrow while near a mosque. The gesture was widely condemned, with Mr Owaisi calling it “vulgar, obscene, and provocative”.

Ms Latha later posted a statement on X and professed to apologise, saying, “If anyone’s feelings are hurt”. However, she also claimed the video circulated is “incomplete”. She also spoke to news agency PTI, claiming a “conspiracy against us (the BJP) … because we work well with both Hindu and Muslim brothers” and demanded “where did the mosque come from?”

READ | “People Of Hyderabad Not Cattle”: Owaisi On PM’s “Lease” Remark

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has seven Assembly segments, of which six are held by the AIMIM.

Voting takes place on May 13, with the other 16 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

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A video of actress turned politician Madhavi Latha where she says “I am not a woman,” during an interview, is cropped and is being shared with a false claim that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Hyderabad said she is not a woman. BOOM found that the video has been cropped and is being shared out of context to make the false claim. In the original interview, Ms Latha was in fact stating that she is not just a woman but Shakti (divine feminine force) herself.

Ms Latha, an actress by profession was announced by the BJP as their candidate in Hyderabad, Telangana against sitting MP Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In a recent campaign event, Ms Latha was seen gesturing firing an arrow towards a mosque which she later claimed was aimed towards the sky to mark the Hindu festival of Ram Navami.

मैं महिला नहीं हूं

फिर क्या है ये #MadhaviLatha#owaisipic.twitter.com/jezyoVli2Y

— Mr_CooL (@MR_CooL77777) April 21, 2024

She has also emerged as one of the richest candidates from Hyderabad constituency, after she declared family assets (movable and immovable) worth Rs 221 crore.

In the viral video, Ms Latha is giving an interview to a news channel and in answer to a question from the reporter about dealing with a situation as a woman, she says, “I am not a woman. Please don’t keep calling me one” and repeats the same towards the camera directly.

View an archive here 

FACT CHECK 

BOOM found that the video is cropped and shared out of context to make the false claim that Ms Latha stated that she is not a woman. We first noticed that the reporter was holding a mic with the logo of ‘News Nation’, a Hindi news channel. Using this, we ran a search on the channel’s YouTube account for the keyword ‘Madhavi Latha’ and found an interview of the leader uploaded on March 3, 2024. 

In the video, Ms Latha who is wearing the same saree as in the viral one. Ms Latha is answering a range of questions about Mr Owaisi, her joining BJP and also about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At the 1.56, the reporter talks about how no BJP leader has ever visited some areas in the old city part of Hyderabad, like Talab Katta, one of the largest slum settlements in the city. He then asks Ms Latha, “As a woman, how do you plan to deal with that situation?” 

To this, Ms Latha answers with an annoyed tone in Hindi. Her statement roughly translates in English to, “I am not a woman, I am Shakti. You should first clarify that. Don’t call me a mahila (woman) repeatedly. It appears like you consider me weak.” After this at the, 2 minutes 7 second counter, Ms Latha turns to the camera, directly addressing viewers and says, “I am not a woman alone, I am Shakti herself who is here, with the strength of her brothers and sisters. I am staying because of their strength…”

 While the word Shakti translates to “power”, it is also used to refer to a divine feminine force, worshipped in different forms in Hinduism. In the viral video, the part where Ms Latha continues her statement and says, “I am not a woman but shakti herself” has been clipped out to make the false claim.

(This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)