Hyderabad: In a bid to woo the minorities in poll bound Telangana Congress president Rahul Gandhi has appointed former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin as the working president of state Congress committee.

Formal orders to this effect were issued on Friday. The party has also appointed Zafar Javed, a prominent educationist as the state party vice president.

Azharuddin is the fourth working president of the state party. Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and Kusuma Kumar were already appointed as the working presidents.

Azharuddin, who hails from Hyderabad, was once elected to the Lok Sabha from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 but lost in 2014 from Tonk in Rajasthan. There are speculations that he may be fielded in Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad constituency in Telangana.

The announcement was made by All India Congress Committee general secretary Ashok Gehlot who also announced appointment of B.M. Vinod Kumar and Jaffer Javed as TPCC vice-presidents along with eight others as general secretaries including Manavatha Roy and Krishank. The others appointed as general secretaries are S Jagadeeshwara Rao, Nagesh Mudiraj, T Narsa Reddy, Faheem, Kailash and Laxma Reddy.

Gehlot also announced appointment for four others — Durgam Bhaskar, Daruvu Ellanna, Vijay Kumar, Bala Laxmi — as TPCC secretaries.