Battle royale at Rampur: SP's Azam Khan vs Cong's Kazim Ali Khan

Rampur in UP’s Rohilkhand region, where voting is underway today (February 14) as part of the second phase of polling in this key northern state, arguably, is the only district where the electoral contest rarely finds a mention of the ruling BJP. This assembly constituency with a nearly 50 per cent population of Muslims is witnessing what many believe is a ‘battle royale’ between jailed Samajwadi Party MP Mohammed Azam Khan and Congress candidate Kazim Ali Khan, scion of the erstwhile Rampur royal family.

There are only fleeting mentions of the BJP candidate Akash Saxena, son of four-term former BJP MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena or the BSP nominee, Sadaqat Hussain, and these are quickly dismissed by the locals.

But unlike earlier elections in Rampur, the present one is different. Azam is not around this time to campaign for himself or for his party – his poll speeches, often controversial for their regressive, below-the-belt and even polarising statements directed at his rivals, aren’t setting the agenda for the polls in Rampur or its adjoining constituencies.

And yet, while the absence of Azam from the campaign trail is a talking point wherever one travels in the district, his shadow looms large with his supporters with many asserting that Azam, ‘Khan saheb’ for most, will win this election with an even bigger margin than the 46,842 vote lead he had over his BJP rival Shiv Bahadur Saxena in 2017.

Azam, the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Rampur, a nine-term former legislator and founding member of the Samajwadi Party (SP) is currently lodged in the Sitapur jail, with as many as 87 FIRs pending against him; some 80 of them filed during the last five years of BJP rule.

Azam’s campaign is being run by his wife, Tazeen Fatima, and his son, Abdullah Azam Khan, himself a SP candidate from the adjoining Suar constituency, where he is facing another descendant of the Rampur royal family, Haider Ali Khan, who is contesting on a ticket from Apna Dal (Sonelal), a BJP ally. He happens to the only Muslim candidate in the fray across UP from the ruling saffron coalition.

Aiding the Khan family in this battle for keeping Azam’s electoral legacy alive in Rampur is Azam’s aide of nearly three decades, Asif.

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It is Asif who painstakingly coordinates all election activity for Abdullah and Azam’s supporters, manages appointments for the media and oversees all election code related formalities.

Until recently, Abdullah too was lodged in the Sitapur jail, the same prison where his father has been an inmate for nearly two years now, in connection with a case of faking his date of birth when he won the Suar seat in 2017. He is accused of having been below 25 years, the eligible age for contesting polls. It is a different matter that the election petition filed by Abdullah’s closest rival in the 2017 polls, BSP’s Kazim Ali Khan aka Naved Mian – now the Congress candidate against Azam in Rampur – was settled in the latter’s favour.

Released on bail recently, Abdullah has the ominous task of overseeing not just his and his father’s election but he has to ensure that the SP sweeps all five seats that fall in the Rampur district. Three of them –Rampur, Suar and Chamraua – had been won by the party in 2017, despite a saffron wave across UP, while the BJP had bagged the remaining two seats of Bilaspur and Milak.

“There is no contest in Rampur; the election in UP is for 402 and not 403 seats… Khan saheb will win by a huge margin and even bhai (Abdullah) will have a comfortable victory,” said Adil Hussain, campaigning for Azam near Rampur’s Jama Masjid.

He added, “Khan saheb can’t campaign because the BJP has kept him in jail but we are all his foot soldiers, it is our responsibility to ensure his victory and we will not let him down… he has been a family elder; he has taken care of Rampur like his own family… whether it is anyone from the royal family or from the BJP, no one can stand in front of Khan saheb in Rampur.”

On February 11, as Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Vijay Rath rolled in to Rampur with Abdullah sharing space with the SP chief and waving to a massive crowd of supporters, a Congress worker who was campaigning for Congress candidate Kazim Ali Khan told The Federal, “hum log toh waqt zaaya kar rahe hain, jeetna toh inko hi hai (we are wasting our time, Azam will win)”.

The worker, however, said the “fight in Rampur is between Darul Awaam (Azam’s office) and Noor Mahal (the royal residence of the Rampur Nawabs)… the BJP has its pockets but its candidate is not putting up a fight for reasons only he can explain.”

The political rivalry between Azam and Rampur’s Nawab family dates back decades and most recent elections – assembly or Lok Sabha – have seen a pitched battle between the two sides; Azam firmly with the SP and the Nawab family constantly changing political sides.

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The political capital of the Rampur royals has diminished

Zulfiqar Ali Khan Bahadur, Kazim’s father, had been a Congress MP from Rampur for five terms between 1967 and 1989 before he died in an accident in 1992. Zulfiqar’s widow, Begum Noor Bano won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat for the Congress twice, in 1996 and 1999.

It is common knowledge in Rampur that Azam’s early electoral successes in the 1980s were largely because he enjoyed Zulfiqar’s patronage. However, in the following decade, arguably due to contesting political ambitions, Azam went against the royal family – a feud that only got murkier after Zulfiqar’s sudden demise. However, as the years passed, while Azam’s hold on Rampur strengthened, the political capital of the Rampur royals began to diminish – partly because of the Congress’s declining hold in UP politics since 1989 and in great measure due to the frequently changing political affiliations of Kazim Ali Khan.

Kazim, a five-term MLA, has been with the Congress, BSP and even the SP. Kazim’s son and Abdullah’s challenger in Suar, Haider, or Hamza as he is popularly called, was declared as the Congress candidate from Suar but days later he switched sides to the BJP fold and was fielded by the Apna Dal (S); a decision many believe is aimed to bag the over 40 per cent Hindu votes in Suar.

Mohd Farrukh, a meat vendor told The Federal,  “We have immense respect for the Rampur family. Before the 1980s (when Zulfiqar Bahadur was active in politics), whatever Rampur had was because of the Nawab family but in the past three decades it is Khan saheb who has done more for the people of Rampur than any other politician, be it Begum sahiba (Noor Bano), Naved Mian or Behenji (BSP supremo) Mayawati… BJP ki toh khair baat hi naa kijiye, woh Rampur ke liye kyun kuch karegi, yahaan toh Musalmaan abadi hai naa (don’t talk about the BJP, why will it do anything for the Muslims of Rampur)…”

According to him, Khan saheb has built colleges, schools, hospitals… even though he is in jail, his family takes care of us all; he doesn’t differentiate between supporters of Congress or other parties.

Poverty, economic backwardness and poor civic infrastructure is visible across Rampur, except when travelling in the vicinity of the majestic Bab-e-Nijat or Bab-e-Hayat gates that mark the entrance to the Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar University built by Khan. Last year the UP government reclaimed the 170 acres of land on which the varsity was built and declared it would rename the gates after war heroes and freedom fighters.

The move, coupled with the BJP, and particularly Yogi Adityanath’s frequent verbal assaults on Azam, has, arguably, fortified public support for the Rampur MP further.

For many in Rampur, Azam is being victimised by the BJP and this election is a time to give a befitting reply to the ruling party for targeting the man many see as UP’s tallest Muslim leader.

“Khan saheb is in jail because the BJP is scared of him… they don’t like him because he works for the upliftment of Muslims and can reply to the BJP in the same tone that their leaders use,” Shahid Pasha, a weaver in Rampur’s main bazaar told The Federal.

Similar sentiments are echoed by Azam’s supporters for Abdullah in Suar even though there is always a mention of the “life of privilege” that Abdullah has enjoyed. “Bhai mei Khan saheb waali baat toh nahi hai… woh sahebzaade hain, lekin hain toh Khan saheb ke bête isliye vote toh unhe hi denge (Abdullah may not be like his father, he is privileged but we will still vote for him because he is Azam’s son),” a local trader told The Federal, requesting anonymity.

Kazim Ali Khan, however, rejected the assumption that Rampur and Suar will witness a no-contest and, just as passionately, rebuffed questions about him and his son contesting from different parties that represent two entirely different ideologies.

Kazim told The Federal, “Rampur is known for its cuisine, its culture, the Raza library and our syncretism. These are part of the legacy of my family. Azam Khan is a nine-term MLA but what has he done for Rampur’s ordinary people; his politics is divisive and regressive, he wins elections because he intimidates people and after winning he and his family only work for themselves… I am confident the people of Rampur will keep all this in mind when they vote.”

Further, he said his son Haider’s decision to contest on an Apna Dal ticket as part of the BJP-alliance is “Haider’s own” and does not affect the political credibility of the Rampur family or his own prospects against Azam.