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With Abdullah’s likely disqualification as MLA, Azam Khan’s family will be ‘out of action’
Suar (in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur) MLA Abdullah Azam Khan was convicted and awarded a two-year jail term in a 2008 case on Feb 13
With senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan’s son and Suar MLA Abdullah Azam Khan likely to lose his assembly membership after his conviction in a 15-year-old case on Monday, the ‘once mighty’ family of Azam Khan is also likely to be out of power in Rampur.
Since 2002, at least one member of Azam Khan’s family has been a lawmaker. For a short period in 2019, Azam Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatma, and their son Abdullah Azam Khan were all lawmakers. At that time, Azam Khan was a Lok Sabha MP from Rampur while his wife and son were both MLAs from Rampur Sadar and Suar assembly segments of that district.
Tazeen did not contest any polls after her term as Rampur Sadar MLA ended in 2022 while Azam Khan lost his membership as he was disqualified as an MLA after being convicted in a 2019 hate speech case last year. If Abdullah also loses his membership, his will be a rare case of a lawmaker losing membership twice in a row.
He was disqualified by the Allahabad high court on December 16, 2019 as an MLA due to a discrepancy in the election affidavit submitted by him. However, if he gets disqualified now, he won’t be able to contest any election for at least six years.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vikram Saini was also disqualified as an MLA from Khatauli seat after being convicted by a court in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case in 2022 and was awarded a two-year prison term.
If Abdullah loses his assembly membership, the ruling BJP will get a chance to win the Suar assembly seat as well as it had won the Rampur Lok Sabha and the Rampur Sadar assembly seats last year.
However, unlike Rampur LS and assembly seats Suar is the seat the BJP had won earlier. The BJP won the seat four times in a row between 1989 and 2002. The erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the parent party of the BJP) won it in 1969. A Samajwadi Party spokesperson when asked about the scenario, said: “Won’t comment now as it is a court matter. Let’s wait and watch”.
An MP/MLA court of Moradabad on Monday awarded a two-year prison term to senior SP leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam in a 15-year-old case of blocking road in Chhajlet area of Moradabad district.
The Representation of the People Act lists offences which can lead to disqualification of legislators, and also states that anyone sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified “from the date of such conviction” and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail.
“Once information about the judgment comes, a decision will be taken regarding declaration of vacancy (of the Suar seat represented by Abdullah Azam Khan),” said a senior official of the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
