Azhar to don Cong cap soon
Former skipper Md Azhar will be batting for Congress in the LS election.
By ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin will be batting for the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. His formal induction into the team will be announced once he meets party president Sonia Gandhi. Sources indicated that the meeting is likely to take place this week. A formal announcement would follow the meeting.
Inducting Azharuddin into the party is part of the broad strategy to induct high profile candidates, be they celebrities, caste leaders or local luminaries. Such candidates would, the senior leadership believes, improve the party���s prospect of winning seats where the Congress performance has not been particularly good. At the party���s
central election committee meeting on Saturday, this concept was reiterated.
The former cricketer���s formal entry into politics has been a matter of some speculation. In October last year, Azharuddin met with Ms Gandhi conveying his wish to join the Congress, as well as making a claim for a party ticket. As a follow-up, he met with senior Congress leader incharge of Andhra Pradesh M Veerappa Moily and chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in January.
After nearly five years in power, the Congress could do with an infusion of celebrity blood. But Azharuddin would not only serve on that count, the Hyderabad-born former cricket captain is expected to be presented as the party���s new Muslim face.
His entry and prospects for a Lok Sabha ticket improved considerably as the Congress has been looking for candidate who would taken on the might of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in the Hyderabad region. It is likely that Azharuddin will contest from one of the three constituencies falling in Hyderabad in the forthcoming elections.
Inducting Azharuddin into the party is part of the broad strategy to induct high profile candidates, be they celebrities, caste leaders or local luminaries. Such candidates would, the senior leadership believes, improve the party���s prospect of winning seats where the Congress performance has not been particularly good. At the party���s
central election committee meeting on Saturday, this concept was reiterated.
The former cricketer���s formal entry into politics has been a matter of some speculation. In October last year, Azharuddin met with Ms Gandhi conveying his wish to join the Congress, as well as making a claim for a party ticket. As a follow-up, he met with senior Congress leader incharge of Andhra Pradesh M Veerappa Moily and chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in January.
After nearly five years in power, the Congress could do with an infusion of celebrity blood. But Azharuddin would not only serve on that count, the Hyderabad-born former cricket captain is expected to be presented as the party���s new Muslim face.
His entry and prospects for a Lok Sabha ticket improved considerably as the Congress has been looking for candidate who would taken on the might of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in the Hyderabad region. It is likely that Azharuddin will contest from one of the three constituencies falling in Hyderabad in the forthcoming elections.
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Azharuddin captained the Indian cricket team for a better part of the nineties. An innings that came to an end in 2000, when the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) banned him for life over his involvement in the match-fixing scandal. The Central Bureau of Investigation also confirmed his involvement, however, in 2006 the BCCI lifted the ban on him.Download
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