Mission 2024: Congress bats for Azam as it looks to woo Muslims back

The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is set to bat for the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) most visible Muslim face Azam Khan, currently in the crosshairs of investigative agencies and who has seen cases pile up against him since 2017, after the SP government in which he was an influential minister lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The development, part of Congress’s effort to reconnect with Muslims, would see it raise the issue of alleged ‘injustice’ under the BJP rule to the most vocal and numerically dominant among all minority groups, which backed it till 1989, when Congress last ruled UP.

“We will fight for Azam Khan sahib. He may be with SP but we will bat for him,” said UP Congress chief Ajay Rai. “We will discuss growing atrocities against Muslims, including that of Azam Khan sahib under BJP rule at the forthcoming meeting of the party’s minority committee in November. Our senior leaders would also be present and after we would launch our outreach,” UP Congress’s minority wing chief Shahnawaz Alam said.

Post 1989, the Congress watched its Muslim voter gravitate towards the Samajwadi Party, which was set up in 1992. Azam Khan, among the SP’s founders, was recently sentenced to seven years in prison with family in his son Abdullah’s fake birth certificate case.

By taking up his case, the Congress is subtly attempting to indicate to minorities that it is willing to raise its voice for all those who feel exploited under BJP, across party lines – a gesture driven by the realisation that to reclaim its lost glory nationally, it will have to win back its lost voter base in UP.

After the November meeting, the party would launch campaign to connect with Muslims as part of which it would also hold meetings with small groups of Muslims at tea shops from December onwards, where the party cadres would also carry photocopies of the Constitution in a subtle attempt to play up their oft repeated, but unverified charge of BJP’s attempting to “change the Constitution.”

In west U.P. where Azam Khan once dominated, several Muslim leaders of influence have either joined the Congress or are tipped to cross over after the results of the assembly elections in five states are out in December.

Former lawmaker Imran Masood, who wields some influence in Saharanpur and nearby areas, has returned to the Congress, while Ahmad Hameed, son of influential party leader Kaukab Hameed Khan is set to join in Baghpat, Congress leaders admit. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had recently met Danish Ali, BSP’s Lok Sabha MP from Amroha.

Till his disqualification Azam Khan had won Rampur (sadar) assembly seat a record 10 times while his son Abdullah Azam, won Suar assembly seat in Rampur twice - being disqualified both times.

Some Congress leaders admit that raising Azam Khan issue could help them connect with Muslim-majority Rampur as well as nearby regions of Sambhal and Moradabad too.

Political experts however feel that Congress would have to be careful to not antagonise SP, which is preferred choice of majority of Muslim voters. The SP is Congress’s ally in the larger opposition alliance.

“In politics, nothing happens without reason. The Congress is desperate to woo its lost Muslim vote and thus is talking about Azam Khan. However, Khan is a SP veteran and Congress will have to tread carefully on that front,” said Irshad Ilmi, a political expert.

The Congress, which witnessed some uncomfortable moments when SP leadership targeted them over seat sharing issues in Madhya Pradesh, is perhaps aware of this aspect.

“We have always raised the voice of oppressed, minorities, women and marginalised. So be it case of Azam Khan sahib or others, there is a growing view that Muslims are being targeted and hence all these aspects would be taken up by the party leadership,” Alam said.

Azam Khan has seen a pile of cases, ranging from serious to absurd, against him - mostly filed by Akash Saxena - now the first BJP MLA from Rampur (Sadar), a bastion that Azam won a record ten times. On Saturday, when he was being shifted out of Rampur jail to Sitapur, Azam had told the media that he even fears being killed in an encounter.

“Anything can happen,” Azam had told the media while refusing to sit in the middle of the police car that was to take him to Sitapur. “You can break my bones and make me sit in the middle but not otherwise,” Azam had told police personnel, who relented as the SP veteran cited a medical condition.

Soon after the Rampur court sentenced him and family to seven years in jail, Azam had sarcastically commented that local channels were aware of the judgement a day before it was actually delivered. “Verdict delivered, not justice,” Azam had gone on to comment. Immediately after, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said Azam was being troubled as he was a Muslim.

The BJP is unmoved by the developments. “It is true that I have filed most of the cases against him (Azam) but I have not delivered the punishment or sentenced him. The court has and in case he feels he is wronged, he can go to court,” BJP’s Rampur (Sadar) lawmaker Akash Saxena said.

In 2022 UP polls, one where Azam didn’t campaign as he was in jail due to series of cases registered against him, Muslims had backed the SP in a big way. Of the 34 Muslim lawmakers, 32, including Azam and his son Abdullah, had won on SP ticket and two on SP ally Rashtriya Lok Dal’s symbol, majority of them from west UP.

In 2012, when the SP formed its first ever majority government, 69 Muslim lawmakers had been elected to the UP assembly – the highest ever and 45 of whom were on SP symbol. In 1991, at the height of the Ram temple movement, barely 17 Muslim lawmakers had been elected to the UP assembly.