The cricketer-turned-politician Mohammed Azharuddin has been made the working president of the Congress party in Telangana, which goes to polls on December 7. Azharuddin has contested Lok Sabha election twice on Congress ticket, winning from Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad in 2009 and losing from Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency in 2014.
Azharuddin, who hails from Hyderabad, wants to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad in Telangana. The Congress’ Telangana unit last year had urged Azhar to contest either the state assembly polls or the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, from the state.
The Congress-TDP combine is putting up a tough fight in a bid to unseat K Chandrashekar Rao’s TRS that has been ruling the state since 2014. In other announcements, BM Vinod Kumar and Jaffer Javed were appointed as vice-presidents of the Telangana unit.