UP RS polls: Azam Khan’s wife in the fray

SP chief Mulayam’s former aide Amar Singh failed to secure a place in the party’s list of six candidates to next month’s biennial Rajya Sabha polls which was released on Friday.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s former aide Amar Singh failed to secure a place in the party’s list of six candidates to next month’s biennial Rajya Sabha polls which was released on Friday. The list includes the name of Uttar Pradesh urban development minister Azam Khan’s wife Tazeen Fatima.

While the surprise inclusion of Fatima was being debated in political circles, she issued a clarification over her alleged “politely turning down the offer”. She also wrote that she would accept Yadav’s decision on the issue. Fatima had also earlier turned down the UP government’s offer to head the state higher education service commission.

By evening a handwritten scanned copy of a letter of clarification reportedly by Fatima implies that she was willing to consider the offer for the RS berth if “no other deserving and rightful candidate was not being omitted.”

Singh had lobbied hard for SP support for a re-entry in Rajya Sabha, having held detailed meetings with both party chief and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav since August this year. He had also shared dais with Mulayam Singh Yadav at the inaugural ceremony of Janeshwar Mishra Park. Singh had then said, “I have come here in a personal capacity and there was no question re-entering SP.” However he had ducked questions on Rajya Sabha.