Azharuddin, Kodandaram take oath as MLCs

Telangana Minister for Minority Welfare Mohammad Azharuddin and Professor M. Kodandaram Reddy on Monday took oath as members of the state's Legislative Council.

Council Chairman G. Sukhender Reddy administered the oath to them at an event held in the Assembly building.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, his Cabinet colleagues, state Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud and other leaders of the ruling Congress party attended the event.

Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla on Sunday nominated Azharuddin and Kodandaram as members of the Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota.

However, the nominations will be subject to the final outcome of all the appeals pending in this regard, reads the notification issued by the state government.

According to the notification, Azharuddin and Kodandaram have been nominated in place of D. Rajeshwar Rao and Farooq Hussain, whose term expired on May 27, 2023.

Azharuddin’s nomination as MLC came as a huge relief for the former Indian cricket captain and the ruling Congress party.

Sworn in as the minister on October 31, 2025, Azharuddin was constitutionally required to get elected to either the Assembly or the Council by April 30 to continue in the Cabinet.

Kodandaram, a key figure in the movement for statehood to Telangana, is the leader of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), which had supported the Congress party in the 2023 elections.

The nominations ended a long period of uncertainty. The Telangana Cabinet had recommended the names of Azharuddin and Kodandaram for nomination to the Council under the Governor’s quota on August 30, 2025.

However, the Governor has not cleared the nominations due to a case pending in the Supreme Court.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had met the Governor on April 19 to request him to approve the pending nominations.

Last month, the Chief Minister had cited the Supreme Court’s observation that it had no objection in the matter and that the state government was free to pursue the issue with the Governor for clearance.

The Cabinet’s decision to nominate them as MLCs in August last year came two weeks after the Supreme Court stayed the appointment of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as MLCs under the Governor’s quota.

Both Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were sworn in as MLCs in 2024. The apex court gave a stay on a petition filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Dasoju Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana, challenging the nominations made by the state government.

Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were nominated as MLCs in January 2024, but the High Court set aside the nomination in March on petitions by Dasoju Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana, whose nomination as MLCs was recommended by the previous government of BRS in July 2023. The same was rejected by then-Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on the grounds that the two were “politically aligned persons”.

The High Court had quashed the Governor’s decision, holding that the Governor can only return the government’s recommendation for reconsideration.

Following the High Court order, the BRS leaders had requested the Governor to nominate them as MLCs. However, as the BRS had lost power to Congress, the Governor rejected the request.

Sravan and Satyanarayana had challenged the Governor’s refusal in the Supreme Court.