Hyderabad: The Congress government in Telangana has decided to nominate former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin as Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) under the Governor’s quota. The Telangana Cabinet yesterday decided to recommend names of Azharuddin and M. Kodandaram to Governor Jishnu Dev Varma.
The development came 17 days after the Supreme Court stayed the appointment of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as MLCs under the Governor’s quota.
Kodandaram, a former professor and president of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), Amer Ali Khan, News Editor of the Urdu daily ‘Siasat’ were sworn in as MLCs a year ago, after a legal battle.
Amer Ali Khan was the surprise choice but the latest decision of the Congress government to replace him with Azharuddin has baffled the political circles.
Azharuddin, working president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) and a member of Political Affairs Committee of the TPCC, recently declared himself as the party candidate for upcoming by-elections to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency.
In the 2023 polls, Azharuddin had suffered defeat from Jubilee Hills at the hands of Maganti Gopinath of the BRS. Gopinath passed away in June, necessitating a by-election to Jubilee Hills.
A few days after Gopinath’s death, Azharuddin announced that he will contest again. However, TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud clarified that the party has not decided its candidate. The Congress party is apparently not confident of Azharuddin’s prospects and it may look for a suitable alternate candidate.
Azharuddin was one of the three Muslim candidates of Congress in the 2023 elections. All of them suffered defeat, which resulted in the lack of Muslim representation in the Cabinet.
Former minister and senior leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir, who lost the 2023 election from Nizamabad Urban constituency, was likely to be nominated as MLC and made a minister. However, last year he was appointed Advisor to the state government on issues related to BCs, SCs, STs and minorities.
The Congress came under flak from the Muslims for not inducting a Muslim in the Cabinet nearly two years after coming to power.
Azharuddin, after his nomination as MLC, is likely to be inducted in the Revanth Reddy Cabinet.
The Cabinet was formed on December 7, 2023 with the swearing-in of Chief Minister and 11 ministers.
After a long delay, the Cabinet was expanded on June 8, 2025 but the Congress once again ignored Muslim community. Though there were six vacancies in the Cabinet, the party leadership decided to keep three posts vacant. The state can have a maximum of 18 ministers including the Chief Minister.
Azharuddin had joined the Congress party in 2009 and the same year he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh. In 2014, he was unsuccessfully contested as the Congress candidate from Rajasthan’s Ton-Sawai Madhopur.
The Congress appointed him Working President of Telangana Congress in 2018. He campaigned for the party in the 2018 Assembly elections, but the party did not field him in either the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls. However, he was named as the Congress candidate from Jubilee Hills in the 2023 elections.
