The Hindu : Front Page : Azam Khan quits Samajwadi Party posts, but stays in party

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Monday, May 18, 2009
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Azam Khan quits Samajwadi Party posts, but stays in party

Atiq Khan

Abstains from the parliamentary board meeting held in New Delhi; apathy of Muslim voters reflected in the voting trend

LUCKNOW: In a bid to pre-empt the Samajwadi Party leadership from taking action against him for his anti-party line in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Mohammad Azam Khan on Sunday resigned from the parliamentary board of the party and also as the national general secretary.

The rebel abstained from the parliamentary board meeting held in New Delhi on Sunday. Known as the Muslim face of the SP, Mr. Khan, has however, not quit the party.

Mr. Khan told reporters in his home town, Rampur, that he had resigned from the parliamentary board on account of the Kalyan Singh factor, which drove away the Muslims from the party in the recent polls. Accusing the party leadership of diluting the party line, Mr. Khan said there was no use in continuing as the general secretary till the wrongs were rectified.

Mr. Khan has been a staunch opponent of the party president Mulayam Singh’s decision to rope in the former Bharatiya Janata Party leader for enhancing the party’s prospects in the elections. Describing Mr. Kalyan Singh as the destroyer of the Babri Masjid, Mr. Khan feared that the move would result in the party losing its Muslim support base.

Mr. Khan also opposed Jayaprada Nahata’s candidature from Rampur and took up cudgels against party general secretary Amar Singh. Mr. Khan was accused of furthering the prospects of the Congress candidate, Noor Bano.

Kalyan Singh factor

Mr. Khan’s tirade though could not prevent Ms. Jayaprada from retaining the Rampur seat, but the Kalyan Singh factor did cause the loss of some crucial seats to the Samajwadi Party as the Muslims chose to reject Mr. Mulayam Singh largely in favour of the Congress, and to a certain extent, the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The apathy of the Muslim voters to the Samajwadi cause was reflected in their voting trend – all the 12 Muslim candidates fielded by the SP in Uttar Pradesh lost. This showed that the Muslims, who had been voting for the SP ever since Mr. Mulayam Singh as the Chief Minister kept the BJP and Bajrang Dal cadres at bay vis-À-vis the Babri Masjid issue, had made up their mind to search for a better option, preferably the Congress. This time round, Mr. Mulayam Singh had nominated Rasheed Masood from Saharanpur; his son, Shadaan Masood from Kairana; Haji Rizwan ( Moradabad); Iqbal Mehmood ( Sambhal); Mehboob Ali ( Amroha); Shahid Manzoor ( Meerut); Zafar Alam (Aligarh); Riaz Ahmed ( Pilibhit); Nafisa Ali ( Lucknow); Shabbir Ahmed Balmiki (Bahraich); Rubab Sayeeda (Shravasti); and Arshad Jamal Ansari (Ghosi). All of them were defeated.

Three of these lost to Muslim candidates of other parties. In Kairana, Mr. Shadaan Masood was defeated by Tabassum Begum of the BSP whereas in Moradabad, former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin trounced Haji Rizwan. In the neighbouring Sambhal, Iqbal Mehmood lost to Shafiqur Rehman Barq of the BSP.

The BSP and the Congress performed better. Of the 14 Muslims fielded by the BSP, four won. The Congress fielded nine Muslim candidates and three of them won. The BJP’s lone Muslim candidate, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, lost in Rampur.

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