Telangana govt to nominate former cricketer Azharuddin as MLC

The Telangana Cabinet’s decision to nominate former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin as MLC under the government’s quota will ensure that chief minister A Revanth Reddy has a free hand to decide on his own candidate for the upcoming bypoll for the Jubilee Hills constituency, deemed to be a prestige fight.

Azharuddin, who lost from the same seat during the Assembly elections in 2023, had, on his own, announced his candidature from Jubilee Hills, but the chief minister seemed reluctant to renominate him once again.

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The Congress is reportedly considering fielding a BC candidate this time. The state Cabinet today decided to renominate Professor M Kodandaram as MLC, along with Azharuddin, under the governor’s quota after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier nomination.

Chief minister Revanth Reddy had his way in deciding the party candidate for the Jubilee Hills constituency, which will be a prestige fight for the Congress since the party had failed to win a single seat in Hyderabad in the Assembly elections, 2023.

The sudden death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath led to the bypoll, and the Congress hopes to win it this time with a little help from the AIMIM.

The Jubilee Hills constituency includes upscale locations as well as slums with a significant percentage of Muslim minority voters. Azharuddin failed to find any support because of his absence on the ground. Although he made the customary rounds in Delhi but the High Command did not yield this time.

Last time, the BRS had won the seat even after Congress fielded the former Indian skipper Mohd Azharuddin, as AIMIM, which was then aligned with the ruling BRS, had split the minority vote by fielding a candidate from the Muslim community.

The Congress might field V Naveen Yadav as its candidate, since he is a familiar figure in the constituency and had come close to winning the seat in 2014 as an AIMIM candidate.

In 2023, he filed his nomination as an independent candidate, but was later persuaded to withdraw in favour of Azharuddin. Instead of a straight fight, it is likely to be a triangular fight, though the large percentage of Muslim vote may turn out to be a dampener for the BJP.