Akhilesh defends Azam, says will take up issue with governor

BAREILLY: Making a strong pitch in defence of Azam Khan, against whom the administration has registered 82 criminal cases, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said he would take up the issue with Governor Anandiben Patel. Khan is SP MP from Rampur. “I have gathered copies of all the FIRs registered against Azam Khan and soon meet the UP Governor and draw her attention towards the misuse of power and system by the authorities in framing a senior leader in such petty and fictitious cases,” said Yadav, who visited Khan’s house in Rampur and met his family members.

Yadav said there was a time when his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, too, was similarly hounded by the then BJP government and more than 100 cases were registered against him. “The SP has always bounced back to power when its leaders are harassed or victimized,” he said adding that his party was not afraid of such strong-arm and bullying tactics of the government and that he, along with party workers and leaders, was ready to go to jail to protest

against the injustice being done to Khan. He slammed the Yogi government over law and order, saying the BJP used to term his regime as that of the ‘goondas’ (criminals). “We have all seen how the government was protecting its MLA in the Unnao rape case or more recently former party MP in a similar case in Shahjahanpur,” Yadav said.

“When government machinery is misused, people lose faith in the government. Mark my words, the BJP government’s failure to

deliver on its promises would usher its rout and we will storm back to power in 2022. My government will then withdraw all cases against Khan,” said the former UP chief minister CM, who later met party workers, clerics and other delegations and visited Jauhar University and Rampur Public School.

Akhilesh, however, parried the question when asked who the party was going to field from Rampur in the up-coming by-elections.