Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Shaik Abdul Aziz has been appointed as chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Waqf Board. He is the lone Muslim leader among 20 chairpersons appointed by the state government for 20 corporations.
TDP, which is heading the NDA government in the state, appointed its leaders as chairpersons for 16 corporations. It left three posts for Jana Sena and one for BJP.
Abdul Aziz, a former mayor of Nellore, is currently the TDP president for the Nellore parliamentary constituency. The 64-year-old industrialist-cum-politician was expecting nomination to the Legislative Council but Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu appointed him chairman of the Waqf Board.
Abdul Aziz, who runs various businesses, started his political journey with the YSR Congress Party in 2010. He was hoping to get YSRCP ticket from the Nellore Assembly constituency in the 2014 elections but the party fielded P. Anil Kumar Yadav.
However, he became mayor of Nellore City the same year with the initiation of YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. He was the first Muslim to hold the post of mayor of Nellore.
Later, Abdul Aziz joined TDP following differences with Nellore City MLA Anil Kumar Yadav. As 12 YSRCP corporators also joined TDP with him, he continued as the mayor with TDP support.
The TDP fielded him as its candidate from Nellore Rural constituency in the 2019 Assembly elections but he lost to YSRCP candidate K. Sridhar Reddy by over 22,000 votes.
In the recent elections to the state Assembly and Parliament, Abdul Aziz played a key role for TDP’s victory in both Nellore City Assembly and Nellore Lok Sabha constituencies by avoiding a division of Muslim votes.
