With eye on Muslim votes, Congress makes Mohammed Azharuddin Telangana working president

HYDERABAD: After being in political oblivion for close to two decades, former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin was on Friday appointed as working president of the Congress party in Telangana. Soon after assuming charge, Azhar said he was keen to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad.

With less than a week to go for the assembly polls, Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s move is being seen as an attempt to attract Muslim votes in the state.

It is also a move to pacify the former skipper, who had been sulking after not getting any role in the assembly elections. Muslims constitute about 14% of the state’s population and can play a key role in about 40 seats in the 119-seat assembly.


“I have been given a good post after 18 years. I am very happy,” said the former Moradabad MP. Azharuddin becomes the fourth working president in the Telangana Congress along with A Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and J Kusum Kumar.

The party has done a delicate balancing act with Revanth being a popular Reddy leader, Prabhakar representing the large BC community and Kumar representing the Kammas.

The Secunderabad seat that Azhar is eyeing is held by BJP’s Bandaru Dattatreya. While BJP is likely to field a new face from the seat this time, sources said Azharuddin would struggle to get the ticket for the prestigious seat as many aspirants are in the fray. While he did say that he would abide by the party’s decision, Azhar made it clear that Secunderabad was on top of his wish list. “My house falls under the constituency. I want to serve the people there,” he said.