Hyderabad, Nov 7 (IANS) Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has announced that Belli Ravi Yadav will be its candidate from Rajendranagar Assembly constituency in Greater Hyderabad.

Yadav is a former corporator of MIM from Langar Houz division.

MIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi announced the candidature of Yadav while addressing a public meeting in First Lancer on Monday night.

Owaisi mentioned that Yadav has been an active member of MIM for the last 22 years.

The constituency will witness a multi-cornered contest. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has fielded its sitting MLA T. Prakash Goud. Congress candidate K. Narendar and BJP’s T. Srinivas Reddy are the other key candidates.

Prakash Goud has won all the three elections from Rajendranagar since 2009, when the constituency was created in the delimitation process. He was first elected as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate. He was re-elected on TDP ticket in 2014 but later defected to TRS (now BRS). He was re-elected on BRS ticket in 2018.

As part of its attempts to expand the party outside the Muslim-majority constituencies in the old city of Hyderabad, MIM has been contesting from Rajendranagar since 2009. It had then fielded Y. Muralidhar Reddy, who finished third with 23,300 votes. In 2014, MIM’s Zakeer Hussain Javed finished third but the party succeeded in increasing its votes to nearly 50,000.

The MIM had fielded Mirza Rahmat Baiq Quadri in 2018. The party again finished third with 46,547 votes.

With Ravi’s candidature, MIM has announced candidates for eight out of nine seats it is contesting. Seven of the seats are held by the party.

On Monday, Owaisi announced that Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin will be its candidate from Jubilee Hills constituency, where Congress has fielded former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin.

The MIM announced six candidates on November 3. It dropped two sitting MLAs. The party has not yet announced its candidate for Bahadurpura constituency.

MIM, a friendly party of BRS, has announced its support to BRS in the remaining 110 constituencies in Telangana.