It is a big disappointment for former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin in the Congress party once again.
Azhar, who had almost jumped the fence to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi before December 2018 assembly elections, dropped out at the eleventh hour following intense lobbying by the local Congress leaders and also AICC leaders like Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
He was promoted as working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee.
Apparently, the Congress high command had promised to field Azhar from either Secunderabad or Hyderabad parliamentary constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Since Azhar has a lot of acquaintances and friends in Secunderabad, he preferred Secunderabad seat.
However, Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee president and former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav insisted that he be retained from Secunderabad.
As a result, Azhar had no option but to agree for the party ticket from Hyderabad, though he knew that it would be difficult to fight against sitting MP and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi.
But to his utter shocking, Azhar’s name did not figure in the list of candidates released by the high command in two spells.
Instead of Azhar, the party has given the ticket to PCC minority cell leader Firoze Khan, who is considered to be a light weight compared to Azhar.
It remains to be seen whether Azhar will remain in the Congress or jump into the TRS.