Hyderabad, June 20 (IANS) A day after former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin declared himself as the Congress candidate for the by-election to Telangana Assembly from the Jubilee Hills constituency, state Congress chief Mahesh Kumar Goud said the party has not finalised its candidate.

Goud stated that Congress has a long process to announce its candidate.

The by-election to the Jubilee Hills seat was necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Gopinath, who had defeated his nearest rival, Azharuddin, by over 16,000 votes in 2023, died of cardiac arrest on June 8.

Azharuddin, who is the Working President of the state Congress, on Thursday stated that he would contest the by-election.

He declared himself as the candidate amid speculations that the party is not likely to field him in the by-election. Stating that Jubilee Hills is his home constituency, the former MP said he would contest again from here.

When Goud’s reaction was sought on Azharuddin’s statement, he said that Congress has a long process to pick its candidate.

He told media persons that aspirants have to first submit their applications to the state unit. After filtering the applications, they are sent to the party’s Central Election Committee and the Congress Working Committee, which finalise the candidate. “Till then, whatever one says is not final,” he remarked.

Azharuddin was recently named as a member of the political affairs committee of the state Congress. His son, Mohammed Asaduddin, was also appointed as General Secretary.

Azharuddin was elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, a few months after he joined the party. The Congress had fielded him from Rajasthan’s Ton-Sawai Madhopur in 2014, but he lost the election.

In 2018, he was appointed as the Working President of the Telangana Congress. He had campaigned for the party in the 2018 Assembly elections, but the party did not field him in either the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls.

However, he was named as the Congress candidate from Jubilee Hills in the 2023 elections. In a multi-cornered contest, he lost to Gopinath of the BRS.

Gopinath scored a hat-trick of victories from Jubilee Hills in 2023.

–IANS

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