The Congress on Friday appointed cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. The state goes to Assembly polls on December 7.
The party’s state unit now has four working presidents, including Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and Jetti Kusum Kumar, The News Minute reported.
The 55-year-old was elected to Parliament in 2009 from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh but lost from Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency in 2014.
Azharuddin’s appointment follows reports that he was unhappy about how the Opposition party was treating him, The News Minute reported.
In July, Azharuddin had told PTI of his plans to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad in Telangana. The former cricketer is from Hyderabad, the state’s capital.
“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,” the news agency had quoted him as saying. “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 do not believe in publicity. What I gathered from my party is that they are also keen that I go there.”
The Congress also appointed BM Vinod Kumar and Jaffer Javed vice-presidents of its Telangana unit. The party has formed an alliance in the state with the Telugu Desam Party, the Communist Party of India and the Telangana Jana Samithi.
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