While Delhi struggles to cope with deteriorating air quality and raging coronavirus pandemic, ruling party Aam Aadmi Party has decided to shift focus to Hyderabad municipal corporation polls. AAP is fielding wives of AAP members, some of whom have contested assembly elections and lost, for these elections. However, since the burqa clad women are hardly recognisable, AAP has decided to put images of their husbands prominently. In a true show of patriarchy, the women’s identity is reduced to being a wife of party member.
Meanwhile, one of the campaign posters of AAP candidate Asra Fatima has gone viral on social media.
https://twitter.com/oldhandhyd/status/1333241187893841920?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAs one can see, it takes a bit of an effort to find out that the candidate contesting the elections is one Asra Fatima. It is overshadowed by a big picture of her husband, Mohammad Majid. Majid’s picture is even bigger than party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s. Mohammad Majid had contested 2018 Telangana Assembly elections on AAP ticket. As per his affidavit then, his spouse was a ‘housewife’. Two years later, she is contesting elections.
However, Asra’s campaign poster has gone viral for hilarious reasons. While some could not find her name in the poster, there were quite a few who could not even find her image in the poster. Many thought she is actually a bottle of cola.
https://twitter.com/Phanind20455198/status/1333272286615494656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/Phanind20455198/status/1333273357454860289?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMany had too many highly amusing questions related to the poster.
https://twitter.com/rhkrish/status/1333282427800731649?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAnd some more.
https://twitter.com/naanumpaarkuren/status/1333299272813404164?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMany also pointed out how this is also a trend in Kerala as well where wives are propped up as candidates and pictures of husbands are more prominently displayed.
https://twitter.com/dhumakethu/status/1333313779002642435?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAnd others pointed out how the wife is perhaps the proxy candidate for the husband.
https://twitter.com/SinghPramod2784/status/1333309490993582080?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwEarlier this year in Delhi Assembly elections, AAP dropped Jitender Singh Tomar and fielded his wife Preeti Tomar in his place. Tomar was disqualified for giving false declarations during 2015 Delhi Assembly polls.
In the same Hyderabad elections, AAP has also fielded one Farheen Begum. Along with the burqa-clad picture of Begum, her husband’s picture appears prominently on the campaign poster.
https://twitter.com/AAPTELANGANA/status/1331953354768064512?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwShe is apparently ‘represented by one Mohammad Abdul Majeed. It is not clear whether Majeed is her husband or is campaigning on her behalf.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections will be held on 1st December 2020.