Rampur Is Not Anyone's Estate: SP Candidate From Rampur Comes Out Swinging Against Party Veteran Azam Khan

The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Uttar Pradesh's Rampur, Maulana Mohibullah Nadvi is all set to leave jailed veteran party leader Azam Khan's legacy behind, as evident from his interview with Dainik Bhaskar.

Azam Khan was elected as MLA from Rampur for nine times and as an MP in the 2019 elections. He vacated his Lok Sabha seat to become an MLA in 2022 but had to vacate this seat as well because he was disqualified after being sentenced to three years in jail in a 2019 hate speech case.

Both Rampur seats, Parliamentary and Assembly, were then won by the BJP by defeating Azam Khan's right hand and district SP president Asim Raza, who was denied a ticket this time by the party's national president Akhilesh Yadav.

Since then, the local SP cadre has boycotted this election. Despite this, Maulana Nadvi refused to bend before Azam Khan to seek his support and said, "This is a democracy. Rampur is neither anyone's legacy nor estate. Many people came before and will come after Azam Khan."

He not only denied going to meet Azam Khan in Sitapur jail but also went to Noor Mahal, the house of Azam Khan's main rival Begum Noor Bano. She was elected as an MP from Rampur twice, in 1996 and 1999, on a Congress ticket.

As Swarajya reported earlier giving the ticket to Nadvi was Akhilesh Yadav's decision, discarding Azam Khan's suggestions, the same is claimed by Nadvi that he wanted to enter politics in 2027 but Akhilesh Yadav asked him to contest the 2024 elections.

Nadvi said that he had known Yadav for a long time and met him on 10 January this year to discuss the current political situation. On the other hand, he claimed that he doesn't share any close relationship with Azam Khan and knows him only as a politician.

The SP candidate downplayed the boycott call by the local cadre and said that there are some disagreements, just like what happens within a family. He expressed hope that all will come in his favour, especially after Yadav's scheduled campaign for him on 14 April.

On the charges of being an outsider, Nadvi said that he was born in Razanagar village, falling in Rampur's Suar assembly segment. He also compared himself to the country's first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who came from Jama Masjid of Delhi's Parliament Street to contest in Rampur in 1952.

Nadvi has been the Imam of the same mosque since 2005 and used to live in Delhi only. In an indirect jibe at Azam Khan, he said that he will not do politics of hate like previous leaders, but he considers Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians as a family.