Hyderabad: It seems that cricketer-turned-politician Mohammed Azharuddin's dream of winning from his hometown Hyderabad in the Assembly election on a Congress ticket might not come true as he is trailing in the Jubilee Hills constituency. While BRS nominee Maganti Gopnath is leading in the constituency.
While speaking to ETV Bharat, Azhar promised development for 'commoners' in a constituency of 'billionaires'. Jubilee Hills comprises an important electorate as it is home to some of the most expensive neighbourhoods as well as some of the poorest slums in Telangana.
It is a nail-biting situation for the citizens in the heartland of Telangana as the battle for Jubilee Hills has taken a risky turn with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielding its candidate Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin in the Shaikpet division. It was alleged that AIMIM's decision to field a candidate was reportedly made to split the Muslim voter base and help the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) against the Congress.
The former India captain, who had captained the team in the 1992, 1996 and 1999 World Cups is contesting from Jubilee Hills against the sitting BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Lankala Deepak Kumar.
Azhar, who opened his political career with a win from the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, took a dig at Telangana's Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao citing 'poor performance'. Azhar said he is optimistic about Congress' win considering the poor performance of KCR alleging the former of not brought forth any developmental work since 2014.
Time and again, the former player has said that his prime focus, if won, would be the uplift of people in the slums whose situation now is pitiful. Speaking about the drainage lines and bad roads, he said that he would fix them on a priority basis and also take up the issue of traffic congestion in the densely populated areas of Kalyannagar, Borabanda, Habibfatima Nagar and Karmik Nagar.
Despite the AIMIM's aim of helping their ally BRS, some leaders of the latter party are worried about cutting a sorry figure due to the split in the minority vote as it would ultimately benefit Congress in the long run. Gopinath on the other hand has been looking forward to consecutive victories as his spirits are high. According to him, he has worked rigorously in the past few years bringing forth major changes in infrastructure in the Jubilee Hills constituency.
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