SP chief Akhilesh Yadav postpones Rampur visit, says he respects all festivals

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said that he has decided to postpone the visit to Rampur as he respects the festivals of Muharram and Ganesh Chaturthi. Yadav will now be visiting Rampur on September 13 and 14, which was earlier scheduled for September 9-10.

The SP chief was scheduled to hold a rally in support for party colleague MP Azam Khan who is facing heat after around 29 cases on the charges of land mafia cases were slapped against him by the UP government. Yadav was also scheduled to meet Khan's son, UP MLA Abdullah Azam Khan who was detained in August after he tried to prevent investigating police officers from carrying out a raid at the Mohammed Ali Jauhar University, which is run by Azam Khan.  

This comes after Rampur District Magistrate said that they would not let SP leaders and members stage any kind of protest during party chief Yadav's visit as Section 144 is imposed on the entire district to ensure peaceful procession of Muharram mourning which is on Tuesday.

The district administration had also written to Uttar Pradesh government seeking a ban on the SP chief's visit and said additional forces have been deployed in the district to maintain law and order situation in Rampur.

Coming out in strong support of colleague Azam Khan, Yadav said his arrest was a political vendetta and false charges have been filed against him to please the BJP's Yogi Adityanath-led state government. Yadav also alleged that the state government and district authorities had colluded together to target Khan. 

Taking a dig at UP CM Yogi and his cabinet ministers for attending a special training program at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow on the topic of good governance and financial management, Yadav said, "What kind of training is required to build roads."

Alleging that loans of many farmers were not waived yet, Yadav said that UP government's poor model does not invite any investment.

Yadav said that the Rampur district administration has been communicated with the new plan, so they will get sufficient time to make security arrangements.

In the FIRs lodged against Azam Khan, he has been accused of forcibly grabbing the land of farmers when Samajwadi Party government was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, the land is now a part of Jauhar University, which was constructed by the senior SP leader. Earlier on August 28, the Rampur district court rejected an anticipatory bail plea filed by Khan. His lawyers have claimed that cases against the SP leader were a result of political vendetta and Khan had not violated the law while purchasing the land for Jauhar University.

Notably, Azam Khan, during the past two months, has been booked in over 78 cases of land grabbing, encroachment, book theft, statue theft and buffalo theft for the Jauhar University.