Hyderabad: At 12:15 p.m. on Friday, senior Congress politician Mohammed Azharuddin will take the oath of office as a minister at Raj Bhavan. Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma will administer the oath of office. The action is perceived as an effort to increase the Congress’s appeal among Muslim voters, who make up a sizable section of the constituency’s electorate, and it comes shortly before the pivotal Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll.
Two fundamental issues—the lack of minority representation and the absence of a minister from Hyderabad district in the 23-month-old Congress government—are being addressed by Azharuddin’s induction, which is being seen as a calculated political move. Approximately 1.12 lakh Muslims make up Jubilee Hills’ roughly four lakh voters. The Congress leadership thinks that by include Azharuddin, minority support in the by-election will be strengthened. Party strategists believe Azharuddin’s promotion will increase Muslim support and send a positive message throughout the state, notwithstanding the AIMIM’s endorsement of the Congress candidate.
November 11 is the date of the by-election to the Jubilee Hills seat, which was made necessary by the passing of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath. As the party looks to recapture the seat it last held in 2009, the race has turned into a prestige struggle for the Congress. Campaigning is underway, with a focus on community contact and welfare programs as essential elements of the ruling party’s approach. The State Cabinet had accepted Azharuddin’s candidacy to the Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota in August after the Supreme Court revoked the MLC nominations of Prof. Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan. His nomination has not yet been approved by Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, nevertheless. The party leadership has chosen to move on with his induction into the ministry in spite of this.
With Azharuddin’s induction, the Telangana Cabinet will have 16 ministers, leaving two positions unfilled. His presence is politically significant because there isn’t now a Muslim MLA or Cabinet minister in the Congress. Azharuddin, a former MP from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, became a member of the Congress in 2009 and was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time that year. Later, in 2014, he ran an unsuccessful campaign from the Tonk–Sawai Madhopur constituency in Rajasthan. In 2023, he ran from Jubilee Hills but lost to BRS leader Maganti Gopinath after being named head of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee in 2018.
