Despite being in jail, senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, is the focus of campaigning for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh election.While he continues to be at the centre of the BJP’s communal campaign as in the past, the SP has spoken out in defence of the Rampur Lok Sabha MP.
On Friday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav addressing a meeting with Mr. Khan’s son Abdullah Azam in Rampur, referred to the 87 cases against Mr. Khan by the Yogi Adityanath government, and said “fake cases don’t have long life.” Mr. Yadav juxtaposed the treatment meted out to Mr. Khan by the government with the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, in the LakhimpurKheri incident in which he is accused of killing four farmers.
“The one who is progressive, builds a university [Jauhar University in Rampur] and fights for your rights and honour, gets punished and jailed. And the one who mowed down farmers gets out of jail,” Mr. Yadav said a day after the Allahabad High Court granted relief to the junior Mishra. “This is the new India of the BJP,” said the former UP CM, adding that Mr. Khan had been booked under frivolous charges which included stealing goats, buffaloes and books.
Mr. Khan is contesting from the Rampur Sadar seat this time while his son Abdullah has been fielded from Suar in the same district. In 2017, the father-son duo had won their respective seats but Abdullah’s election was later declared null and void by the Allahabad High Court after it found that he was underage at the time of election. Mr. Abdullah also spent almost two years in jail and was released recently.
Even though Mr. Khan was denied permission to campaign and is in jail, he features as a central point of the BJP’s narrative in the State especially in western U.P.’s Rohilkhand region, which along with Saharanpur votes on February 14. The second phase of voting has 55 seats, with many including Rampur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Amroha, Sambhal and Bijnor having a substantial population of Muslims above the State average of 19.5%. The SP hopes to make reasonable gains in the region by mobilising the minority votes on several seats, while the BJP hopes to capitalise on polarisation.
Addressing a rally in Bareilly on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made direct refrences to Mr. Azam Khan’s incarceration as an achievement of the BJP government. He said the Yogi Adityanath government had eliminated the mafia one by one.Mr. Shah refered to three Muslim leaders in the state who are in jail — Azam Khan,Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari andformer Phulpur MP Atiq Ahmad — and heaped scorn on them for their incarceration.
“[He] had a big clout. Now tell me, where is Azam Khan,” Mr. Shah asked at the public meeting. Many from the crowd responded with one word: “Jail.”Mr. Shah said that though he believes Mr. Yadav would not get votes but even if “by mistake” the SP forms government, “then will these three [Muslim leaders] remain in jail?” Only the BJP can keep the mafia behind bars, he added.
