Azam-baiter Usmani gets top SP post

Hailing from Badaun, Usmani is an eminent Islamic scholar and an orator besides a supporter of Mulayam. He claims to have no ill-will with Azam Khan.”To my knowledge, Azam had never opposed me…I am with Mulayam since inception of the party,” Usmani said.

Mulayam’s nephew Dharmendra will be filing his nomination papers from Badaun seat Tuesday. Dharmendra had won from Mainpuri in 2004 and Badaun in 2009. However, during the last Lok Sabha polls Dharmendra managed to win by a margin of only 32,542 votes with D P Yadav of BSP coming in second. A major chunk of Muslim votes were captured by Saleem Iqbal Sherwani of Congress who got 1.93 lakh votes.

This time, BSP has fielded a Muslim, Akmal Khan alias Chaman, from Badaun. The SP leaders were worried that about polarisation of Muslims votes against Dharmendra. On the other hand, Usmani who holds good clout among Muslims in Badaun, was sulking after he was appointed as chairman of State Urdu Academy, only to be dropped within 48 hours in 2012. Usmani had reached Lucknow and was to take charge when the order was withdrawn allegedly at the behest of Azam Khan. “I don’t know why my appointment was then withdrawn,” Usmani said.

The acrimony between Usmani and Azam Khan is quite old as the cleric had not left SP even when Azam was expelled from the party. Later, Azam returned to party and got Badaun Assembly ticket for his close aide Abid Raza, who won the election in 2012 leaving Usmani in a lurch. Since then Usmani was sidelined.

Appointing Usmani on an important post of national general secretary is an effort by Mulayam to appease the Muslim community in Badaun for smooth sailing of Dharmendra in the polls, said a senior party leader.

“Muslims are lauding the decision of SP for my appointment as national general secretary. The response of Muslims will be tremendous towards Dharmendra. No doubt, politically it will benefit him,” Usmani said.

Sacked minister’s nephew inducted

LUCKNOW: Kunwar Vikram Singh, the nephew of Raja Anand Singh who was sacked from Akhilesh cabinet after his son Kirtivardhan Singh joined BJP to contest from Gonda parliamentary seat, joined the SP Monday. Vikram Singh is currently chairman of town area Mankapur. Singh joined SP along with his large number of supporters. SP’s candidate from Gonda Nandita Shukla was also present during his joining. Meanwhile, Rana Agam Singh, the son of former Congress MP Ranaveer Singh from Kaiserganj also joined SP on Monday. ENS