Samajwadi Party Sticks to Loyal Khan Family for Bypolls, Field Azam's Wife Tazeen Fatima from Rampur

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party on Sunday announced to field Rampur MP Azam Khan's Tazeen Fatima as its candidate for Rampur bypoll.

Fatima is also a member of the Upper House from Samajwadi Party. The Rampur assembly seat went vacant after Khan was elected to Lok Sabha earlier this year.

The Rampur MP has been booked in more than 80 cases, including 30 cases of alleged land grabbing in Rampur. The main idea behind fielding Fatima may be to encash the sympathy of the people for her husband and other family members who have been booked in several cases recently. Khan’s son Abdullah Azam who has been also booked in multiple cases is also MLA from Swar assembly seat.

SP Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and party chief Akhilesh Yadav had earlier alleged that Azam Khan was being targeted unnecessarily by the administration at the behest of the state government. The SP chief had also paid a visit to Abdullah Azam in Rampur recently and held a protest against the government for targeting the SP leader.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party has also declared candidates for remaining seats: Indrasen from Gangoh, Major Ashish Chaturvedi from Lucknow Cantt, Samrat Vikas from Govindpur Nagar, Nirbhay Singh Patel from Manikpur, Brajesh Patel from Pratapgarh Sadar, Gaurav Kumar Rawat from Zaidpur, Subhash Rai from Jalalpur, Kiran Bharti from Balha and Sudhakar Singh from Ghosi.

The party has also declared to support Lok Dal candidate from Iglas assembly seat. The last day for filing nomination is September 30, while voting will be held on October 21. The counting for bypolls will be done on October 24.