Former Indian cricket captain and Congress leader Mohammad Azharuddin was on Friday appointed the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC). His appointment was approved by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. TPCC now has four Working Presidents - Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, Jetti Kusum Kumar and now Mohammad Azharuddin. Dr BM Vinod Kumar and Jaffer Javed have been appointed the Vice Presidents of the TPCC.
Azharuddin’s appointment comes after reports suggested that the former MP - who had expressed unhappiness with the way he was being treated - was planning to part ways with the Congress.
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Appointment regarding office bearers of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. pic.twitter.com/aaGV3uCB8r
In an interview with PTI, Azharuddin expressed that he was keen to fight the 2019 elections from his home ground - Secunderabad, Telangana. "I have visited so many places and villages in the constituency and spoken with farmers and other people, they all welcomed me to contest from there. I have conveyed my feelings. At the end of the day, the party is the supreme power...I want to work for the people there (Secunderabad). I have worked very hard in the constituency, but I don't believe in publicity. What I gathered from my party is that they are also keen that I go there," he added.
This had stirred up a storm within the Congress, with party MP Anjan Kumar Yadav declaring that he was not willing to give up his claim to the constituency.
In the previous elections, Azharuddin's name was doing the rounds as a possible candidate from Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi. However, the cricketer was reluctant to contest from Hyderabad, a seat held by MIM for over three decades.
Azharuddin had earlier contested the Lok Sabha elections - representing Congress - and had secured victory in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh in 2009. However, he later suffered a loss from Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency in the 2014 elections.