Hyderabad: Denied a ticket in 2018, defeated in 2023, Congress chief and former cricketer Azharuddin was Friday inducted into Telangana CM Revanth Reddy’s cupboard, simply forward of the November 11 Jubilee Hills meeting bypoll.

Azharuddin, or Azhar as he’s extra generally recognized, had unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2023 on a Congress ticket. He misplaced to Maganti Gopinath of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), whose demise earlier this yr necessitated the bypoll. The meeting section falls in central Hyderabad, with over one lakh Muslim voters, of the overall 4 lakh.

By inducting Azhar into his cupboard, CM Revanth Reddy seems to have made an try and hit two birds with one stone: interesting to the dominant Muslim neighborhood in Jubilee Hills; and handle criticism that the Congress cupboard lacked a Muslim face in Telangana, the place the neighborhood makes up about 13 % of the overall inhabitants.

Honoured and humbled to be sworn in right now as a Cupboard Minister within the Telangana Authorities by Shri Jishnu Dev Verma Garu, Hon’ble Governor of Telangana.

My heartfelt gratitude to Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Ji, Smt Sonia Gandhi Ji, Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji, Smt Priyanka Gandhi Ji, and… pic.twitter.com/xXPNnlLbbG

— Mohammed Azharuddin (@azharflicks) October 31, 2025

The 62-year-old, whose stellar cricketing profession was lower quick by the 2000 match-fixing scandal, joined the Congress simply forward of the 2009 normal election.

Azhar was elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) as a Congress candidate in 2009, and unsuccessfully contested the Tonk-Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan) seat, additionally on a Congress ticket, in 2014. He was denied an meeting ticket in 2018 and as a substitute appointed working president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC).

He then padded up for the meeting polls in November 2023, from Jubilee Hills. After an early lead, Azhar misplaced to BRS’s Gopinath by a margin of greater than 16,337 votes.

When the seat fell vacant after Maganti’s demise in June this yr, Azhar was hopeful of leaping within the fray as soon as once more, this time with assist from the ruling Congress. However the social gathering selected to subject Naveen Yadav as a substitute.

Yadav was the AIMIM’s candidate in Jubilee Hills in 2014, and is seen as near social gathering chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Owaisi, the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad, has endorsed Yadav, whereas selecting to take a seat out the bypolls this time round. As for Azhar, his acceptance of Yadav and steadfast loyalty to the Congress has now fetched him a cupboard berth.

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Azhar’s induction a ‘determined transfer’?

Two months in the past, the Telangana cupboard chaired by CM Revanth Reddy accepted Azharuddin’s title, together with that of Telangana Jana Samithi president Prof M. Kodandaram, for nomination to the state legislative council underneath the Governor’s quota.

The file is reportedly pending with the Raj Bhavan, as officers are mentioned to be weighing the deserves and authorized implications of a authorized tussle pertaining to earlier such appointments.

Not simply Azhar, house has additionally been carved out in Telangana Congress for his son and former cricketer Asaduddin. Asaduddin is one in all 69 normal secretaries appointed to the Telangana Congress in June by the social gathering management.

Father Azharuddin’s tenure as Hyderabad Cricket Affiliation president, in the meantime, was not with out controversy. Accused of misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore— allotted for procurement of diesel mills, firefighting methods, canopies and so forth., on the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium at Uppal right here—Azhar and another HCA workplace bearers had been booked in October 2023, as he was prepping for the meeting polls.

Stating the fees as “all false & motivated,” Azharuddin had then referred to as the episode a “stunt pulled by my rivals to smash my repute”. Azhar additionally reportedly confronted Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons in reference to the identical case.

In the meantime, BJP leaders together with chairman of the state unit’s Election Fee affairs committee, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, wrote to the ballot panel Thursday, urging it to droop the cupboard enlargement “because it violates the Mannequin Code of Conduct”. Within the contest in Jubilee Hills, the BJP additionally expressed considerations that Azhar’s induction, a political transfer, was aimed toward currying favour with Muslim voters within the constituency.

BRS working president and former minister Ok.T. Rama Rao took to X Thursday to time period Azhar’s induction into the cupboard a “determined” transfer. “After 2 years in Govt, appears like Congress social gathering is lastly waking as much as floor realities, Promising the moon to cine staff, inducting Azharuddin in cupboard and ministers desperately working round in Hyderabad Gullies like by no means earlier than,” he wrote, referring to the Jubilee Hills bypoll.

Congress leaders together with Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, in flip, accused opposition events of conspiring to dam Azhar’s induction. Referring to him as “a celebrated sportsman who introduced immense satisfaction to India together with his globally recognised achievements,” Vikramarka mentioned that, “regardless of such contributions to the nation, the BJP tried to hinder Azhar’s entry into the Cupboard purely out of communal prejudice”.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

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