E-Paper
Azam loyalists want Akhilesh to contest from Rampur
But there are speculations that the SP may field former Mainpuri MP, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, nephew of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, from the Rampur seat
HT Correspondent
letters@htlive.com
MEERUT Even as the Samajwadi Party was yet to announce its candidate from Rampur for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Azam Khan’s loyalists urged party’s national president Akhilesh Yadav to contest from this constituency.
Interacting with media persons, SP district president Ajay Sagar released a letter by senior party leader Azam Khan in this regard, saying: “We invited party’s national president Akhilesh Yadav to contest from Rampur Lok Sabha constituency to change the atmosphere of atrocities against party supporters.”
The party’s office bearers accused the district administration and police of committing atrocities against party workers, leaders and supporters during elections. “We had seen in the past two bypolls how police and officials committed atrocities against party supporters and voters to ensure that they could not vote freely,” they said, adding: “The letter of Azam Khan reads that under such situation, it was impossible to conduct a fair election.”
However, there were speculations that the SP may field former Mainpuri MP, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, nephew of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, from the Rampur seat. The party may shift sitting Moradabad MP, ST Hasan, to Rampur by replacing him with former SP Bijnore MLA Ruchi Veera in Moradabad.
Azam Khan defeated BJP’s Jaya Prada by a margin of 10,997 votes in 2019 LS election of 2019. Later, he resigned, and in bypoll of 2022, BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi defeated SP candidate and confidante of Azam Khan, Mohd Asim Raza, by a margin of 42,192 votes.
SP had lodged its complaint about “high handedness of police and officials” during elections allegedly to discourage party supporters to vote in favour of SP candidate.
The special MP/ MLA court (sessions trial) in Rampur had sentenced Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and 10-time former MLA Azam Khan to seven years’ imprisonment and imposed a ₹8 lakh penalty on him in a case of forced demolition of a house in 2016 in the Dungarpur area of Rampur. This is the fifth case in which Khan has been sentenced. He has been acquitted in two cases.
