Azam Khan to join AIMIM? Asaduddin Owaisi's party urges SP leader to switch sides

In a letter to the Samajwadi Party MLA, AIMIM state spokesperson urged Azam Khan to join the Owaisi-led party so that BJP and the SP could be eliminated from Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi: Days after a close aide of senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan accused the party of ignoring him, Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has urged the former Uttar Pradesh minister to join the party.

In a letter to the Samajwadi Party MLA, AIMIM state spokesperson Mohammad Farhan urged Azam Khan to join the Owaisi-led party so that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the SP could be eliminated from Uttar Pradesh, PTI news agency claimed on Sunday (April 17, 2022).

"When you were fighting for life in Medanta Hospital, the whole nation was concerned about your well-being and praying. On your safe return to the Sitapur jail, Akhilesh Yadav did not consider it necessary to meet you," the AIMIM leader said in the letter to Khan.

He claimed that neither Yadav nor his party has the "slightest pain" that the leader is in jail.

"Akhilesh Yadav took votes from Muslims by putting your photo in the 2022 Assembly elections, but when it came to making you the leader of the opposition, he did nothing," the AIMIM leader alleged in the letter.

Urging Azam Khan to join the AIMIM, he said Owaisi has raised his voice against every oppression being committed against Khan and always considered him as his elder brother. 

Earlier in the month, jailed SP leader Azam Khan's media incharge had accused party president Akhilesh Yadav of ignoring his colleague and the Muslim community, sparking speculation of a rift in the opposition party.

Fasahat Ali Khan, Azam Khan's spokesperson, said Yadav met the senior leader only once in the jail and the party made no attempt for his release in the past two and a half years. He said this was his "personal pain" but he will tell Azam Khan that it is high time to take a "decision".

Fasahat Ali Khan said, "Azam Khan has been in jail for the last two and a half years but the Samajwadi Party has done nothing for his release and didn't even protest in one district. What would be more absurd than this that Akhilesh Yadav met Azam Khan in jail only once."

"Can it be assumed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is right in saying that Akhilesh Yadav does not want that Azam Khan comes out of jail," he asked.

He also accused Yadav of neglecting Azam Khan, saying the Samajwadi party president did not take his name when he spoke in the Assembly recently.

It is noteworthy that the outburst by the Azam Khan's aide came days after hints from Akhilesh Yadav's uncle and ally Shivpal Singh Yadav, who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, that he might snap ties with the Samajwadi Party. 

Azam Khan, who is languishing in the Sitapur jail, had won from Rampur Sadar seat for the 10th time in the recently concluded Assembly polls. He quit the Lok Sabha membership from Rampur to remain an MLA.

Meanwhile, a Firozabad court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Azam Khan in a 15-year-old case of inflammatory speech. Khan has been asked to appear in court on April 30.

According to the order issued by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Amrish Tripathi, Khan was accused of giving an inflammatory speech during a public meeting held in Mohalla Hussaini under the Rasulpur police station area during the 2007 elections.

(With agency inputs)