E-Paper
Azam Khan aide joins BJP ahead of Rampur bypoll
Fasahat Ali Khan, who had also been the media-contact of Azam Khan in Rampur, joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Bhupendra Chaudhary
Samajwadi Party (SP) veteran Azam Khan’s aide Fasahat Ali Khan ‘Shanu’ joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday just about a fortnight before the Rampur (Sadar) assembly bypoll scheduled for December 5.
In the past, Fasahat Ali Khan had written a letter to the President with his own blood, complaining of alleged discrimination that Azam Khan had been subjected to by the BJP government.
Fasahat Ali Khan, who had also been the media-contact of Azam Khan in Rampur, joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, who was in Rampur (Sadar) assembly constituency for a booth-level public meeting organised at Sawariya Park located on Shahbad road on Monday.
“I think under BJP rule, all sections of the society have benefitted and that’s why I, along with various other Muslims, have decided to back the BJP this time,” said Shanu. The Rampur campaign also included BJP veterans, including finance minister Suresh Khanna and minorities affairs minister Dharampal Singh.
Shanu, however, refused to make a comment against Azam Khan.
Congress leader in Rampur Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, a five-time lawmaker, too, has declared support for the BJP.
The assembly bypoll was caused after Azam Khan was convicted in a 2019 hate speech case and subsequently lost his membership of the state assembly. Barring a stray loss in 1996, Azam Khan has won the Rampur seat 10 times since 1977.
With Azam Khan apparently under pressure, the BJP has already launched a campaign to woo ‘pasmanda (backward)’ Muslims.
“The benefits of double engine government have come to all and naturally the poorest Muslim has also benefitted like all other poor and backwards. Thus, the community now realizes that it won’t be a vote bank anymore and would vote for their prosperity, development and not for any individual,” said Danish Azad Ansari, Uttar Pradesh’s junior minority affairs minister.
Azam Khan had won the Rampur (Sadar) seat for a record 10th time in the 2022 UP assembly polls despite being in jail. This is the first election on the seat since 1977 when Khan or his clan isn’t a contestant. What’s more, Azan Khan for the first time won’t be a voter in Rampur Sadar, as his name has been removed from the electoral rolls on the orders of the Election Commission, following a complaint made by BJP candidate Akash Saxena, who had since 2017, lodged a series of cases against Khan.
On Azam Khan’s advice, the Samajwadi Party has again fielded his loyalist Asim Raza, on the seat. Raza had earlier lost the June Lok Sabha by-poll in Rampur to Ghanshyam Lodhi, another Azam Khan aide turned BJP leader.
