JH Assembly Bypoll: Azhar meets Sonia, Rahul as PCC scouts for winning horse

Hyderabad: Within days after PCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud made it clear that the party is yet to zero in on the Jubilee Hills candidate, the cricketer turned politician Mohammed Azharuddin called on Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. One of top aspirants meeting the party’s top brass has created quite a buzz in political circles.

With Jubilee Hills bypolls in the offing, the PCC leadership is making sure it fields the winning candidate this time, as it conducts surveys to assess the strengths of potential candidates before making a final decision. Despite Azharuddin declaring himself as the candidate for the upcoming bypoll on behalf of the Congress party, the party wants to make sure it fields a winning candidate.

The party even invalidated the assertions made by City Incharge Minister Ponnam Prabhakar of ‘local’ as key criteria. Ponnam is shouldering the responsibility along with Ministers Vivek Venkatswamy and Tummala Nageswara Rao for success of bypoll of Jubilee Hills. “Priority will be given to a winning candidate this time and no one’s name is under consideration. A thorough procedure will be followed, after notification comes even Azharuddin’s application will be examined,” clarified PCC president during recent media interaction.

According to party sources, in wake clarity and rebuttal to Ponnam’s claims who asserted ‘local’ as criteria that too in presence of Azharuddin, one of the top aspirants is former Mayor Bonthu Rammohan Rao. While Azharuddin is lobbying with AICC leaders, the leader is said to have made a hard sell to the PCC and tried his best to impress the State leadership during the recent ‘Chalo Delhi’ campaign for 42% BC reservation. Other potential candidates for the Congress’s Jubilee Hills ticket include V Naveen Yadav (had contested from AIMIM in 2014), C Rohin Reddy (contested recently from Amberpet), besides scores of others.

During 2023 Assembly polls, Azharuddin lost to BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath by 16,337 votes, while AIMIM which fielded Rashed Farazuddin was able to secure 7,848 votes and BJP’s L Deepak Reddy obtained 25,866 votes. Azharuddin blamed his defeat on AIMIM’s splitting of votes. The bypolls are now necessitated by the death of the Gopinath.