Playing on front foot, hooking off backfoot': Azhar confident of assembly polls success

New Delhi: Confident that the AIMIM will not be able to bowl 'bouncers' at him on his home turf, Congress' Jubilee Hills candidate Mohammed Azharuddin believes that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party's objective is only to cut votes and serve as the B-team of the BJP and the BRS in the Telangana polls. Once known for his stylish flicks and sharp catching on the cricket field, the former Indian team captain is confident of success in the Telangana assembly polls arena and said he is playing on the front foot and when the ball is there for the hook, he hits it “off the back foot”.

A swashbuckling batsman from Hyderabad, Azhar made a mark in the cricketing arena with his inimitable swagger and stylish stroke play. Like the explosive start he had to his cricketing career with three back-to-back centuries, he also began his political innings with a win from Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad Lok Sabha seat in 2009. He lost from Rajasthan's Tonk-Sawai Madhopur in 2014 and after waiting in the wings patiently, he has now entered the state electoral contest for the first time by seeking to wrest the Jubilee Hills constituency in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

In an interview with PTI, Azhar said his campaign has been coming along really well and is getting a great response from the people. Azhar said his agenda in the constituency is about development, with drainage problems, water supply, and growing “rowdyism” being the main issues that need to be dealt with. Azhar added that his main focus will be on these issues. Already facing the stiff challenge of taking on the ruling BRS' sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath, Azhar is now engaged in a triangular contest with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielding Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin despite not putting up a candidate last time on the seat. The Jubilee Hills seat, which falls in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment, is home to over one lakh Muslim voters.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has been attacking Azhar and said earlier this week that he is an "unsuccessful politician". Asked about the AIMIM fielding its candidate from Jubilee hills, Azhar said, “They are doing what they have been doing for so many years. There is nothing new about it. Their only job is to cut votes and they are very happy with that, they derive satisfaction from that.” On the Congress' contention that the AIMIM is playing the role of the B-team of the BJP and the BRS, Azhar gave a one-word emphatic answer – “Definitely”. Asked if he would be able to negotiate the “bouncers” thrown at him by the AIMIM, Azhar quipped that the party was not capable of bowling bouncers. “They cannot become a cricketer.

I am a cricketer and a politician both, they must remember that,” he said in a lighter vein. Azhar also acknowledged that fighting the assembly polls was a completely different challenge and experience as compared with contesting the parliamentary polls, but he was up to the challenge. Asked if he was dealing with the challenges on the front foot, Azhar said, “I am playing on front foot and when the ball is there to hook, (I hit it) off the back foot. He expressed confidence that the BRS would be defeated this time from this constituency, and added in his inimitable style, “Insha Allah”. Azhar has been one of the working presidents of the Telangana Congress since 2018. Entering the electoral fray in Telangana as the Congress candidate from Jubilee Hills, Azhar had earlier said he will bat aggressively and field properly to win on this new pitch.

He had said he was yearning to contest from his home state and do something for the people of Telangana after being an MP from Uttar Pradesh and then unsuccessfully contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur. Azhar pipped P Vishnuvardhan Reddy to bag the Congress ticket from Jubilee Hills. Reddy had won the seat in 2004 and 2009, but lost to BRS' Gopinath in 2014 and 2018. The Congress is seeking to replace the BRS government in the state. Polling for the 119 assembly seats in Telangana is set to take place on November 30 and results will be declared on December 3