It was first in 1985 that a young Azam Khan, known for his captivating oratory skills, had appeared on the electoral landscape of Rampur, a city which was till then known more for its nawabs and also the Rampuri knife. A former student leader of the Aligarh Muslim University, he went on to win the assembly election that year on a Janata Party ticket. The era of Azam’s domination in Rampur had begun.
More than three decades later as politics changed in the state, Azam Khan, now in his mid-70s, has virtually lost his home turf to arch-rival BJP. The latest setback has come with his son Abdullah Azam losing his membership of the state assembly following a conviction in a 2008 case of roadblocking and restricting government employees from discharging their duties. In nearly 40 years, this is for the first time that there is no elected MLA or MP from Azam Khan’s family in Rampur.
Azam Khan and his son Abdullah both won the 2022 assembly elections. While Azam emerged victorious from his traditional Rampur constituency, a seat which he had won for a record nine times in the past, his son netted the Suar constituency. But within a year, both father and son have lost their assembly memberships.
Before Abdullah, it was Azam who lost his status as an MLA following a conviction in a 2019 hate speech case in October last year. Even as the family was still recovering from that political setback, Abdullah too has now lost his membership after a conviction by a Moradabad court.
THE RISE OF THE BJP AND AZAM’S DOWNFALL
There was a time in politics when Azam was considered the second most important man in the Samajwadi Party (SP) after Mulayam Singh Yadav. A compatriot of “Netaji” in politics, Azam played a crucial role in the formation of the SP in 1992. A fierce critic of the BJP and the RSS, he was also a key figure of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, a body that was spearheading the legal and political movement against the campaign by the BJP-VHP for the liberation of the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya where the Babri mosque had stood.
From the very beginning, Azam was often positioned as the most prominent Muslim face of UP politics. This suited both him and his party in a state where Muslims constituted an important voting bloc. In the post-1992 Babri Masjid demolition era when the BJP mostly struggled to find space in the arena dominated by the SP and BSP, Azam continued to call the shots.
From 2002 to 2007 in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government and then in the 2012 to 2017 period under Akhilesh Yadav as the chief minister, Azam was a powerful cabinet minister, whom even the CM wanted to keep in good humour. He was often referred to as an unofficial deputy CM during Akhilesh Yadav’s rule.
This period of strong political clout also saw Azam Khan fervently chasing the dream of opening the Maulana Jauhar Ali University in his native place of Rampur—a passion that probably became an obsession that raised many eyebrows.
Defying all questions Azam got the way cleared for becoming the lifelong chancellor of the university. All allegations of misconduct, land grabbing, and illegalities in the land allotment and operations of the university were ignored.
CHANGE OF POLITICAL GUARD, TROUBLE MOUNTS FOR AZAM
The winds of political change had already set in 2014 with the BJP’s landslide win in the general elections. The saffron party along with allies won 75 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The saffron domination was complete with the ruling Samajwadi Party’s rout in the 2017 assembly polls. As the BJP swept the elections, it was the time for staunch Hindutva face Yogi Adityanath to become the chief minister.
Coming with a promise of a probe into the wrongdoings associated with the formation of the Maulana Jauhar University, the Yogi government soon turned its focus on Azam Khan’s turf of Rampur. The UP police, which in the past had launched a search operation for Azam’s missing buffaloes, were now knocking on his door and questioning him for multiple cases of cheating, forgery, land grabbing, and theft.
As multiple FIRs were slapped against him, Azam soon had more than 90 different criminal cases against him. Over 40 cases were registered against his son Abdullah. It was time for facing the government’s ire and police heat for Azam and his family. The first major setback came when Abdullah Azam lost his membership in the UP Vidhan Sabha for filing a false birth certificate in the 2017 assembly elections. The disqualification order came after a sessions court in Rampur declared him underage at the time of contesting the polls and giving a fake age certificate to the Election Commission.
Azam who had by then won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Rampur was also soon behind bars. It was a long legal battle for him seeking to get bail in case after case. For almost two and a half years, Azam was in prison before he could finally come out.
Meanwhile, in Rampur, the Yogi administration’s bulldozers continued to run over large areas of the Jauhar university, demolishing illegal constructions and reclaiming the usurped land. As the Khan family battled probably its worst period on the personal front, the BJP was also working to erode its political grip in Rampur.
Some disappointment also came for Azam from within his own party. The changed narrative of politics in the state has probably compelled the SP in being less vocal about its most prominent Muslim face. The fear of minority appeasement charges was too strong for the party and a reason for its lost aggression.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, as the Samajwadi Party looked to be in a position to take on the BJP, it again banked on the Azam factor in the Muslim-dominated district of Rampur. His family too anticipated a change in fortunes if the SP came to power. The election results, however, demolished their hopes.
Though Both Azam Khan and his son Abdullah won, the party fell way short of forming the government. With Yogi Adityanath retaining power in a second sweeping win for the BJP, there was no respite in sight for Azam Khan and his family.
The Rampur assembly bypolls held after Azam’s disqualification and a subsequent ban on him contesting any election for the next six years saw his arch-rival Akash Saxena Honey winning on a BJP ticket. The BJP is now eyeing the Suar constituency vacated by Abdullah Azam’s exit.
THE ROAD AHEAD?
As the father and son for the moment face a ban on contesting any election for the next six years, a possible plunge in any future polls can only be by other family members. Azam’s wife Tazeen Fatima was once a Rajya Sabha member, but Azam of late has indicated that he has no desire to push either his other son or anyone else from the family into politics.
Those close to the family say that for the moment Azam and Abdullah are focusing on possible legal respite against the lower court conviction orders imposing a six-year ban. Samajwadi Party’s national spokesperson Ameeq Jamai says, “Azam Khan is highly respected and a top leader of the party. He is still the party’s national general secretary and will continue to play a key role in party and state politics, despite all the conspiracies by the BJP.”
However, for the present, there is a pause in Azam Khan’s electoral politics. It will be interesting to see what role he plays in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election when most likely the battle will again be primarily between the BJP and SP. Azam Khan may not be able to contest, but he can still define the politics of Rampur.
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