Amaravati: Less than a year after taking voluntary retirement to join politics, Andhra Pradesh’s former IAS officer Mohammed Imtiaz bid goodbye to politics.
The YSR Congress Party leader announced that he was quitting politics due to personal reasons.
Imtiaz had taken voluntary retirement to join YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in February at the invitation of YSRCP president and then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The YSRCP had also fielded Imtiaz as its candidate in the Assembly elections from his home constituency Kurnool.
Jagan Mohan Reddy had denied renomination to Kurnool’s sitting MLA Hafeez Khan to field Imtiaz but the former bureaucrat suffered defeat. Imtiaz lost to Telugu Desam Party’s T.G. Bharath by a margin of 18,876 votes.
As the YSRCP lost power to TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance, the former IAS officer decided to quit politics.
The alliance bagged 164 out of 175 Assembly seats and also won 21 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the simultaneous elections held in May.
YSRCP, which had come to power in 2019 by winning 151 Assembly seats, could win only 11 seats. The party managed to win only four Lok Sabha seats.
A state-cadre IAS officer of 2009 batch, Imtiaz hails from Kurnool, which has a sizable Muslim population. He had topped Group-I examination and opted for the commercial taxes department.
Imtiaz had been serving as additional chief commissioner of land administration for the last one year before he quit his job.
He had also served as the district collector of Krishna, CEO of SERP (Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty) and secretary of Minority Welfare Department.
Known in bureaucratic circles for his humble nature and honesty, Imtiaz had been active in public service through their family managed trust.
His father-in-law Dr KM Ismail Hussain was known as a ‘two rupee’ doctor in Kurnool. The doctor who charged patients only Rs.2 succumbed to Covid-19 in 2020.
