PEOPLE WANT CHANGE, SAYS AZAM KHAN

LUCKNOW/BAREILLY: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan, who will contest the parliamentary poll from Rampur, on Sunday said, “people (who grew) tired of the BJP rule in the past five years have chosen me to fight the Lok Sabha election.”

The Rampur Lok Sabha seat is currently held by BJP’s Nepal Singh.

“People in the country have realised the harm that BJP rule has done to the economy and the society. They want a change,” Azam Khan said.

“It is a big challenge but the voters are with us. The voters are looking to the Samajwadi Party (SP) with renewed hopes,” he said.

The BJP is yet to declare its candidate.Azam’s elder son Abdullah Azam Khan, who is an MLA from Suar in Rampur, said the Samajwadi Party members will support his father.

Speaking to reporters in Rampur, Abdullah said, “We suspect that the local administration will lodge false cases to harm our election campaign. We are preparing to send a report regarding this to the Election Commission.”

Azam Khan recently demanded transfer of the current Rampur district magistrate after Urdu gate near Jauhar University was demolished. The Rampur unit of the party on Sunday revealed that it was after an appeal from SP chief Akhilesh Yadav that the decision to boycott the election was revoked.

Abdullah Azam Khan said, “After the names of Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan were declared from Azamgarh and Rampur, the party president appealed to the party’s Rampur unit and my father to come together to fight atrocities of the state government. It has been decided that we will be contesting the elections,” Abdullah said.

Earlier this month, Azam Khan announced the SP’s Rampur unit has decided to boycott the elections owing to what he described as the atrocities of the state government.