LUCKNOW: In a politically crucial development, BJP ally Apna Dal (S) on Sunday announced the candidature of Haider Ali Khan from Suar assembly seat in UP's Rampur, the pocket borough of Samajwadi Party heavyweight and jailed MP Azam Khan.
Haider Ali is from Rampur's royal family and the grandson of Begum Noor Bano, veteran Congress leader and former MP of Rampur, whose rivalry with Azam is well known in political circles. Congress had declared Haider its candidate on January 13, but he severed ties with his party to join Apna Dal (S).
Also, this is the first time that the BJP ally has fielded a Muslim candidate since 2014 when the saffron party rose like a political behemoth in the state. The Anupriya Patel-led outfit had successfully fielded two candidates in 2014 Lok Sabha elections -- Anupriya (Mirzapur) and Harvansh Singh (Pratapgarh).
Likewise, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections Anupriya (Mirzapur) and Pakauri Lal Kol (Robersganj) had contested as Apna Dal (S) candidates. In 2017 assembly elections, the BJP ally fielded 11 candidates -- all non-Muslims -- and won nine seats. This time, Apna Dal (S), however, expects to get at least 15 seats.
Haider, a 32-year old graduate from Essex University (London), is the son of Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, Azam's known detractor in Rampur and himself a four-time MLA from Suar and Bilaspur (now extinct).
Kazim had contested the 2017 assembly elections from Suar assembly seat on a BSP ticket but lost to SP candidate and Azam's son Abdullah Azam by a margin of nearly 65,000 votes. In fact, Kazim stood third behind BJP's Laxmi Saini who bagged 26 per cent of the vote share.
But in December 2019, Abdullah lost his UP assembly membership on charges of discrepancies in his election affidavit. The complainant in the case was Kazim Ali. In February 2020, Abdullah, along with his father Azam and mother Tazeen Fatima were sent to jail in connection with several criminal cases lodged against them. The BJP has already fielded Akash Saxena, son of former BJP MLA from Suar, Shiv Bahadur Saxena, from Rampur. Saxena pursued cases of alleged land-grabbing against Azam.
Khan's candidature as BJP's ally candidate comes amid SP plans to field Abdullah again from Suar. His grandmother Begum Noor Bano aka Mehtab Zamani Begum also defeated BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in 1999 Lok Sabha elections by over 1.15 lakh votes. Naqvi is at present Union minister of minority affairs and BJP's deputy leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha.
