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Mohammad Azharuddin: Former Team India captain, Vidhan Parishad MLA Mohammad Azharuddin took oath as a minister in the Telangana government today (October 31). His swearing-in ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan today. The by-election for the Jubilee Hills assembly seat in Telangana will be held on November 11. The number of Muslim voters is 30 percent. Azharuddin’s entry into the cabinet is believed to benefit the Congress. Azharuddin was defeated from this seat in 2023. Meanwhile, the Telangana Congress government did not have a single Muslim minister, leading to allegations of under-representation of the Muslim community in the cabinet. Now, Azharuddin’s appointment as minister has rectified this deficiency. With his inclusion, Revanth Reddy’s cabinet now has 16 ministers, while the maximum number of state ministers is 18.
What will be the benefit of the by-election?
Every third voter in Jubilee Hills Constituency is Muslim: Jubilee Hills Assembly Constituency has approximately 3.90 lakh voters.. Of these approximately 1,20,000 to 1,40,000 voters belong to the Muslim community. This means that the number of Muslim voters is about 30 percent. That is why the role of Muslim voters is important in determining the election results in this region. Hence, by appointing Azharuddin as a minister, the Congress has tried to strengthen its faith in this community. There is no Muslim candidate in the by-election. After the death of MLA Gopinath, by-elections are being held in Jubilee Hills constituency. Maganti Sunita Gopinath from BRS, Valla Naveen Yadav from Congress and Lankala Deepak Reddy from BJP are contesting the elections. At this time, no Muslim candidate is contesting from any of the three major parties.
Azharuddin’s defeat in assembly elections
Azharuddin contested the 2023 assembly elections as a Congress candidate from the Jubilee Hills constituency, but was defeated by BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath by 16,337 votes. The BRS candidate got 80,549 votes, while Azharuddin got 64,212 votes.
Played 99 Test matches for India
Mohammad Azharuddin represented the Indian team in 99 Test matches. He was accused of match fixing when he was about to play his 100th Test match. In 2000, the BCCI banned Azhar for life following an investigation. However, the ban was lifted by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2012.
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