Deeply honoured and humbled, says Azharuddin on MLC nomination

Hyderabad: Former captain of the Indian cricket team Mohammed Azharuddin said on Sunday that he is ‘deeply honoured and humbled’ by the Telangana Cabinet’s decision to nominate him as Member of Legislative Council (MLC) under the Governor’s quota.

The former MP took to ‘X’ to thank All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Mallikarjun Kharge, top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K.C. Venugopal for their ‘trust and blessings’.

Azharuddin said he was also grateful to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC in-charge for Telangana Meenakshi Natrajan for their guidance and support. “I remain committed to serving our state with integrity and dedication,” he said.

The Telangana Cabinet on Saturday decided to nominate M. Kodandaram as MLC under the Governor’s quota.

The Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy decided to recommend their names to Governor Jishnu Dev Varma for nomination as MLCs.

The move came two weeks after the Supreme Court stayed the appointment of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as MLCs under the Governor’s quota.

Both Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were sworn in as MLCs about a year ago.

The decision to nominate Azharuddin came as a surprise as the ruling Congress party was likely to field him as its candidate upcoming by-election to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency. The state cabinet, which met here on Saturday, decided to nominate him in place of Amer Ali Khan.

The by-election to the Jubilee Hills seat is necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Gopinath, who had defeated his nearest rival, Azharuddin, by over 16,000 votes in 2023, died of cardiac arrest on June 8.

Azharuddin, who is the Working President of the state Congress, had stated that he would contest the by-election.

However, State Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud had said that the party had not finalised the candidate.

Azharuddin was elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, a few months after he joined the Congress party. The Congress had fielded him from Rajasthan’s Ton-Sawai Madhopur in 2014, but he lost the election.

In 2018, he was appointed as the Working President of the Telangana Congress. He had campaigned for the party in the 2018 Assembly elections, but the party did not field him in either the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls.

IANS