CM to induct Azhar into Cabinet

Hyderabad: In a palpable move to woo Muslims, who constitute over a third of the voters in the byelection-bound Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has decided to induct cricketer Mohd Azharuddin into his Cabinet. Another two vacant Cabinet berths are also likely to be filled soon. The cricketer-turned-politician and Congress’ senior leader is likely to be sworn in as Minister in the Raj Bhavan on Friday.

The state Cabinet approved Azharuddin's name for MLC post under the Governor's quota recently. However, Governor Jishnu Dev Varma has not yet given his consent in view of a case pending in the Supreme Court on filling MLC posts.

Speculations are doing rounds that Azharuddin will get Home and Minority Welfare portfolios. Soon after news broke about Azharuddin being inducted in the state Cabinet, the Congress leader drove to the CM's residence and held a meeting.

On Wednesday night also, the senior Congress leader, accompanied by his aides, met with Revanth Reddy. Party leaders said that the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s high-octane campaign against the ruling Congress party's alleged indifference towards the minority community in providing a berth in the state Cabinet could be one of the main reasons to induct the cricketer-turned-politician from the Muslim community in the Cabinet before the byelection to the Jubilee Hills segment on November 11.