SP leader Azam Khan
Credits: PTI photo
Sitapur: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Lok Sabha member Azam Khan, who faces dozens of cases including forgery and land encroachment, walked out of Sitapur district jail on Tuesday after 23 months. His release sparked speculation about a possible switch to the BSP, though Khan chose to remain non-committal.
The veteran leader was given a rousing welcome by hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside the jail. Asked about his next course of action, Khan said he would rest for some time before chalking out his future strategy. He then headed straight to his hometown Rampur in a massive cavalcade of over 75 vehicles.
“Only time will tell. I can’t say anything at this moment. Ask those who are making these predictions,” the firebrand SP leader retorted when pressed on whether he planned to join the BSP.
He dismissed talk of being “displeased” with SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh, in turn, welcomed Khan’s release, saying he had been implicated in false cases and that an SP government would withdraw them. He also rejected reports of Khan’s alleged BSP move as “mere rumours.”
Senior SP leader and general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav echoed the same, insisting, “Azam Khan is a Samajwadi. He will never join the BSP.”
Not all voices within the party were as conciliatory. Former SP MP S.T. Hasan, considered Khan’s rival, remarked that his departure would not cause much damage to the party. Meanwhile, All India Muslim Jamat national president Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi urged Khan to form a new political outfit and contest the next assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, due in two years.
Azam Khan, a close aide of SP patron late Mulayam Singh Yadav and one of the party’s founding members, is said to be upset with Akhilesh. His supporters claim the SP chief did not do enough to secure his release during his incarceration.