In Rampur, an absent Azam Khan is omnipresent: in SP unit’s revolt, ally Cong’s warmth, BJP’s hopes

Rampur is buzzing ahead of Eid and the countdown to the April 19 elections. But, outside the imposing residence of senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Lok Sabha MP Azam Khan on Jail Road, there is silence.

The doors to the house are closed and the lane outside empty. Neighbours say visitors and hangers-on have dried up since the arrest of Khan, once one of the most powerful politicians of Uttar Pradesh, as well as that of his wife and son. Rampur Jail, where his wife, former Rajya Sabha MP Tazeen Fatma, is imprisoned is hardly 200 metres from the Khan residence.

In times past, poll season would have seen SP leaders making a beeline for the Jail Road address. Rampur can’t remember the last time when a Khan family member or a leader recommended by him was not contesting on the SP ticket.

This time, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav, who has had a prickly relationship with Khan – like other leaders belonging to his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s time – has given the Rampur ticket to a cleric from Delhi, Mohibbullah.

Khan apparently wanted Akhilesh to contest, and after he refused, recommended his old-time aide Asim Raja. While Raja even filed his nomination papers as “the SP candidate”, the papers were rejected during scrutiny.

Now, the SP district organisation, whose leaders owe their loyalty to Khan, is in revolt, questioning the choice of Mohibbullah, who has been the imam of a mosque on Parliament Street in New Delhi for the past 20 years.

Mohibbullah’s election office in-charge and cousin Maqtoob Ahmed complains that SP district president Ajay Sagar as well as Raja, the SP Rampur chief, have chosen to be “neutral”. “Neither they nor their people are supporting us. Former SP district president Virendra Goel is