Akhilesh Yadav to meet Azam Khan in Rampur on Oct 8; some in SP ask why take so long

Party’s Rampur district president Ajay Sagar confirmed to have received Yadav’s visit schedule. The party president will reach Rampur on October 8 and will meet Khan at his residence, Sagar said. Yadav will first come to Bareilly in a helicopter and then travel to Rampur in a car, he added.

There has been an undercurrent of differences between Akhilesh and Azam since the Rampur administration started lodging criminal cases against Khan in 2019. And this became obvious since Akhilesh never visited Khan in jail while he was incarcerated for five years — initially for three years and then for two years till his release a few days ago.

Azam and his supporters were also left disappointed as the party never staged a protest or raised the issue of the SP leader being named in over 90 criminal cases under different charges.

While speculations have been rife since Khan’s release from jail about his joining the Bahujan Samaj Party, the SP leader declined the suggestion upon his arrival in Rampur.

He went on to assert in a press statement on Wednesday that “I am not saleable”.

But Azam’s reply to the media that “perhaps that will no longer be required” fuelled speculations when asked about Akhilesh Yadav’s statement that all the cases against him will be withdrawn once the SP forms government in the state.

Akhilesh’s Thursday announcement to visit Khan was not taken enthusiastically by Azam’s supporters.

A party leader and Khan loyalist, who earlier served in a crucial post, said why is the party president taking so many days to meet the former minister.

“He should have come this week only if he actually was with Khan. Akhilesh Yadav has never been with Khan. He visited Azam’s wife Tazeen Fatima in Rampur due to elections (during assembly bypoll in November, 2024), but never visited Azam in jail,” he said.

A ten-time MLA from Rampur, Khan faces several criminal charges, including allegations of land grabbing and corruption, which he claims are politically motivated. His recent release followed the Allahabad High Court granting him bail last week in the Quality Bar land encroachment case, where his name was added during a reinvestigation nearly five years after the FIR was filed.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP government of looting the public through GST collections, fuelling inflation and “doing gimmicks” instead of real work. Talking to mediapersons, he said, “The truth is, those who imposed GST and looted the treasury, collected it all, are today out doing ‘ganging’ to mislead people. Tell me, after nine years, they suddenly realised that milk has become expensive, curd has become expensive, food items have become expensive, books have become expensive, clothes of the poor have become expensive.”

He was referring to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit to Hazratganj, where he met traders and interacted with them on the new GST.

“After nine years, how much have they collected through GST? Will there be any compensation? Traders say that on one hand they give some relief but on the other hand they increase GST and take it back. This is only to allow profiteering. Until profiteering is stopped, inflation will not come down,” the former chief minister said.

Mocking recent tax cuts on consumer goods, Yadav said, “They reduced Rs 2 on a cream, Rs 3 or Rs 4 on a shampoo. If I am wrong, let the government say so. But tell me, what benefit does a farmer get if cream is cheaper by Rs 2? What employment did our youth get from the shower gel becoming cheaper? Which business grew? The government has no narrative, no programme left. That’s why they are only doing gimmicks.” Yadav said the SP, if voted to power in 2027, would revive the socialist “daam bandho” (price control) policy advocated by Ram Manohar Lohia and former party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

On the controversy over “I love Muhammad” posters, Yadav said it was a “very sensitive issue”. “We must see who is at the root of it. If people start saying ‘I love you’ across religions, every problem will end,” he said. —PTI inputs