Hyderabad: Speaking to reporters here, Congress spokes person Veerappa Moily said, “former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin is selected for IPL 2009″. (Readers should understand this IPL means Indian Parliament league. This should not be confused with more famous IPL - Indian Premier League a Twenty20 cricket tournament.)

Last October, former Indian captain Azhar met Congress high command at New Delhi.  Then, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi discussed with former Indian captain Azhar about him contesting for parliament elections on Congress ticket. But involved parties declined to speak to media on this.

But things were confirmed today when Azhar visited Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee head quarters in Hyderabad to meet Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Veerappa Moily. After brief discussion former captain left with out speaking to reporters. Veerappa Moily later met press. He confirmed media speculation that Azhar is going to contest parliament election on congress ticket.

When reporters asked about match fixing allegations against Azhar, Veerappa Moily furiously responded, “Where were you reporters when Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had much serious murder charge against him was fielded by BJP? “.

How ever known sources say, Congress had roped in Azhar to counter the loss suffered due to Samajwadi Party poaching Sanjay Dutt. Also Congress firmly believes a man who can fix international cricket match can also easily fix a national election in party’s favor.

Reports from Lucknow suggest Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav roasted Amar Singh. Mulayam shouted, “How can you miss such a high profile candidate like Azhar. One Sanjay Dutt is not enough for us. We have 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh. We need to find controversial candidates for all these seats.” Amar Singh apologized to his chief and promised to bring in another match fixer “Ajay Jadeja” to Samajwadi Party.

Speaking to news persons at Chennai, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy(YSR) suggested B Ramalinga Raju should be made India’s finance minister, as country needs a full time finance minister(currently Manmohan Singh - Official Prime Minister of India is taking care of Finance ministry).

Recently, “Satyam” India’s fourth largest software services provider was in news for all wrong reasons. To top it all, came revelations from Satyam’s Chairman Ramalinga Raju’s stepping down letter to SEBI (Stock Exchange Board of India) which stated, “profits in the company were inflated over the years, leading to wide gap between real and imaginary assets”. India Inc and media are shocked by these revelations.

But YSR is of different opinion. He confidently said, “Last year India’s Sensex was around 21,000 points and economy was growing at a healthy rate of 8.9%. But this year share market is reeling less than 9,000 points and economy growth rate is mere 6.8%. How to overcome this gloomy scenario and influx cash flow? Our country really need some one with excellent track record of tailoring audit reports and performs shadowy corporate governance. I can’t think of a person better than Ramalingam Raju.” Many Andhra Pradesh politicians endorsed his views.

Praja Rajyam Party leader, Chiranjeevi (Chiru) , speaking at a road show in Nellore  said, “If Ramalinga Raju is willing to become finance minister he can. If he is not willing he can’t” in a conclusive tone he is famous for.

Though differing with YSR on every issue, TDP supreme and former CM, Chandrababu Naidu too had supported YSR’s proposal. However Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) made his support only conditional saying that, “TRS will support Ramalinga Raju only if he accepts Separate Telengana”.

Speaking on this latest development, Satyam’s spokes woman at Hyderabad said, “Satyam chairman is humbled by the trust of political leaders and is willing to take up the finance minister position if a request directly comes from Prime Minister”.