SP falls back on family, old warhorse Azam Khan for Azamgarh & Rampur bypolls

There was a lot of attention on who the SP would field from Rampur amid a visible rift between Akhilesh and Azam. The discord between the two became apparent in the public on several occasions before and after the veteran leader’s release from Sitapur prison on May 20. The conjecture in political circles before Azam’s release was that the differences between the two were over the seat. While Azam reportedly wanted someone close to him to be fielded, the SP chief had apparently proposed that it should go to someone outside the Khan family. Last week, Akhilesh met Azam in a Delhi hospital for “extensive talks” and it seems he agreed to leave the decision on the candidature to the veteran leader.

Decades-old association

The 64-year-old Asim Raja has been by Azam Khan’s side through thick and thin for the last 45 years. He has been the SP’s Nagar Adhyakash for the last eight years and is considered to be one of the few people in Rampur the veteran leader trusts.

The pick left many observers surprised after speculation that Azam’s wife Tanzeen Fatima or one of his daughters-in-law would contest the seat. Speaking to the media after filing the nomination, Raja said that after being elected he would raise issues the SP believes in. “Development, harmony, and good atmosphere in Rampur will be my issues and to develop Rampur like Azam Khan sahab has,” he added.

By allowing Azam to make the final call in Rampur, the SP has averted jeopardising the control it currently has there because of the support for the veteran leader.

Raja will be up against former party colleague and current BJP leader Ghanshyam Lodhi. The BJP has fielded the former SP MLC with an eye on Other Backward Class (OBC) votes in the constituency. Lodhi started his political career with the BJP and moved to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and then the SP before making a comeback to the ruling party.

Battle-hardened cousin

By choosing his cousin Dharmendra Yadav, 43, Akhilesh is trying to keep intact his family’s hold on a seat considered to be their stronghold. Mulayam Singh Yadav won Azamgarh in the 2014 elections and the SP chief retained it five years later.

Dharmendra, who is the son of Mulayam’s brother Abhay Yadav, contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to retain the Badaun seat he had won five years earlier, but he lost by 18,454 votes to the BJP’s Sanghmitra Maurya who is the daughter of current SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya. At the time, Swami Prasad was also in the BJP and went to become a minister. He switched to the SP in the run-up to the state elections earlier this year. Dharmendra’s first election was in 2004 when he contested from the party stronghold of Mainpuri and won the seat by polling 62.64 per cent of the votes.

Azamgarh has a high number of Yadav and Muslim voters. The party is confident of bagging a majority of Muslim votes like in the state elections and Dharmendra’s candidature is also likely to ensure the consolidation of the Yadav votes. The SP leader will be up against Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ of the BJP. Having lost Azamgarh to Akhilesh Yadav in 2019 by a sizeable margin, this is Nirahua’s second chance to get elected to the Lok Sabha.

The BSP has announced it won’t field a candidate from Rampur. Its candidate in Azamgarh is its former MLA and businessman Shah Alam “Guddu Jamali”. Alam contested the recent state polls from Muabarakpur unsuccessfully on an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) ticket.