Hyderabad: Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin on Friday said that he was very happy and expressed his gratitude to Congress for fielding him from the Jubilee Hills seat for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
“I am grateful to Congress High Command including Mallikarjun Kharge ji, Rahul ji, Sonia Madam, Priyanka Gandhi Madam, TPCC President Revanth Reddy,” said the congress leader in a video statement.
“I am very happy after being fielded from the Jubilee Hills. We will try to win the elections with the blessings of God,” added Mohammed Azharuddin.
Drawing a parallel between the cricket field and politics, he said, “It’s always a close contest. There’s no fun in contesting if there’s no competition. And as a player, I am used to competition.”
He was reacting to Former MLA Vishnu Vardhan Reddy’s dismay, followed by his resignation from the Congress party today. Vishnu was reportedly assured of a ticket from Jubilee Hills by Telangana Congress in-charge Manikrao Thakre, but Azharuddin was chosen instead.
Azharuddin thanked Manikrao Thakre for nominating and considering him a competitive candidate, “We will uphold all the six guarantees we have promised, and our focus will remain on delivering them rather than reacting to what other political parties say,” he said.
Congress on Friday released its second list of candidates, comprising 45 names, for the Telangana Assembly polls scheduled to take place next month.
The party has fielded former India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin from Jubilee Hills seat while Madhu Goud Yaskhi has been fielded from Lal Bahadur Nagar.
The party held its central election committee, led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, on Friday to finalise the names of the candidates.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the CEC meeting.
Party’s prominent leaders like Sonia Gandhi, and Salman Khurshid along with others were present at the meeting.
In the previous Assembly election in 2018, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), previously known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share.
The Congress came in a distant second with just 19 seats.
The counting of votes for the Telangana Assembly will be held along with those of four other poll-bound states on December 3.
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