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Why Rampur turned against Azam Khan & voted BJP — ‘corruption, instigation, economic decline’

This month's bypoll, necessitated by Khan's conviction in hate speech case, saw a Hindu candidate, BJP's Akash Saxena, win in the Muslim-majority constituency for the first time.

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Rampur, Uttar Pradesh: There was a time when Rampur, a district in Uttar Pradesh, was synonymous with ‘Rampuri chakus‘ — gravity knives that Bollywood villains would flick open in signature style as they terrorised their trembling victims on screen. The story goes that local bladesmiths working for the Nawab of Rampur came up with the design to lure buyers at a time when use of firearms was becoming popular.

Today, both the Rampuri chaku, and this erstwhile seat of nawabs, have lost their sheen. Rampur today is best known, not for knives or royals or even the Rampur Raza Library, a treasure trove of ancient manuscripts, but as the “gadh” (stronghold) of convicted Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohammad Azam Khan.

Even that association seems to be wearing off now. In the Rampur bypoll held earlier this month, most of the Muslim electorate refrained from supporting Khan by voting for the candidate contesting in his stead a first since 1980, according to Election Commission (EC) data.

On 8 December, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Akash Saxena won the assembly seat, defeating SP’s Asim Raja by 34,136 votes. BJP’s victory came as a surprise to many, and a shock to the SP.

Azam Khan, who faces 93 criminal cases in UP, was convicted in a 2019 hate speech case in October. The bypoll was necessitated by his disqualification as MLA, following his conviction.

Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja | Photo: Madhuparna Das | ThePrint
Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja | Madhuparna Das | ThePrint

Social and political observers claim that Rampur’s association with Khan has changed the character of the place in the decades that he wielded complete control over it. Once a centre of nawabi culture and tradition, it became a hub of migration and crime, they alleged.

“Rampur used to be called the second Kanpur of Uttar Pradesh as it was the centre of trade. It had sugar factories, textile units, zari work and kite-making units. The Rampur Raza Library is unique in so many ways. But no one talks about all this. People only know Azam Khan and his cases, the communal politics and his ways to instigate (the masses),” said professor Mumtaz Arshi, a veteran political analyst based in Rampur.

He added: “During the ’90s, Azam Khan led the labour protests here which caused the shutdown of all big factories. Over a period of time, this place came to be ruled by Azam Khan and his ways of intimidation. People started migrating to other places for work.”

The district town, with its concrete houses, doesn’t have the appearance of an impoverished neighbourhood, but the per capita income of Rampur is among the poorest in the country, according to district administration officials — around Rs 72,447.41.

There are no separate figures available for the Rampur assembly constituency, which is a part of the district.

The socio-economic condition of the people, sectarian divisions among the Muslims, alleged defections in the Samajwadi Party, and Khan’s weakening clout, explain the SP’s fall in Rampur this election, paving the way for the victory of BJP’s Akash Saxena.

According to EC records, this is the first time a Hindu candidate has won in an assembly election in this Muslim-majority constituency.


Also read: ‘Modi will remain in power’ — at his 1st rally in Rampur, Yogi asks Azam Khan bastion to vote BJP


Divisions within Muslim votebank

According to electoral rolls data, Muslims account for about 60 per cent of the Rampur electorate.

Since 1980, Khan has won nine times in the constituency. In the UP assembly elections earlier this year, he won in the Rampur constituency with a 60 per cent voteshare. But when his conviction and resultant disqualification necessitated a bypoll, his close associate Asim Raja was fielded as the SP candidate.

Raja, however, belongs to the Saifi community of Muslims, which is a very small part of the electorate in Rampur.

While Pathans comprise the largest votebank, with around 80,000 votes, Turks form close to 30,000 of the electorate and Saifis account for around 3,000 votes in the area, said a senior government official who has worked with the Election Commission.

According to political observers in the area, sectarian divisions among the Muslims were a big reason for a big chunk of the electorate abstaining from voting in the bypolls, which worked to the BJP’s advantage. Some Muslim voters also voted for the BJP to be on the “right side of mainstream politics”.

In seven booths of Peela Talab, Rampur, for instance, voter turnout was reportedly as low as four per cent. The highest polling percentage in booths with Muslim-majority voters was reportedly 39 per cent, while the lowest was four per cent. The highest polling percentage in booths in Hindu-dominated area was 74 per cent and lowest 27 per cent.

While the SP leadership, including the candidate Asim Raja, have alleged that their workers and supporters were “forcefully restrained” from casting their votes by the police and administration, Muslims in the area said that the fear psychosis created by Azam Khan — which would push them to vote for him or any candidate supported by him — was not there anymore since he is behind bars.

The trading community of Rampur, primarily Pathans and Turks, added that they wanted to disassociate themselves from Khan.

Of the total 454 polling booths in the constituency, 251 booths have primarily Muslim voters. The BJP led in at least 50 booths dominated by Muslim voters, which is a first for the constituency, said election officials. ThePrint has accessed the booth-wise data.

Azam’s waning clout

Social observers claim that the absence of industry and business in Rampur has led to skilled and unskilled workers migrating to places like Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, in search of a better life.

“The sugar and textile units were shut down during the ’90s after Azam Khan started the labour movement in the region. His political graph rose (because of the movement), but the town lost its sheen, as half a dozen small sugar mills and textile units and two big factories, where thousands of people worked, downed shutters,” said Arshi, a political analyst, based out of Rampur.

“The famous ‘Rampuri chaku’ industry is also suffering losses. There is an acute crisis of jobs, and educated youths are now driving auto rickshaws,” he added.

ThePrint in 2020 had also reported on the state of unemployment in many villages in UP, including in Rampur.

Arshi added: “Rampur has a rich history of culture and tradition. The Rampur Raza Library houses 17,000 rare manuscripts and 70,000 books. The library is now under the (administrative control of the) union ministry of culture. Khan tried to capture that too. The Nawab family of Rampur was defamed by him many times.”

Rampur, the analyst further said, used to be a symbol of communal harmony, but Khan “brought the politics of instigation”.

“Now people can see that his political career is almost finished and he would never be able to come out clean of the cases of forgery, corruption and other conspiracies. So, Muslims are not willing to side with him (anymore),” Arshi said.

The Rampur Raza library | Photo: Madhuparna Das | ThePrint
The Rampur Raza library | Madhuparna Das | ThePrint

Despite having won elections from Rampur for the past four decades, as a member of legislative assembly and of Parliament and having been a powerful minister in the state cabinet, Khan is believed to have made little contribution to uplifting the Muslim-majority seat, said Arshi. On the contrary, his private assets, continued to swell — he also heads the trust that runs the Muhammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

The SP leader is also perceived as a dynast, who brought his wife and son into politics and gave them candidature but did not support his own workers, said a senior leader of his party on condition of anonymity.

The SP leader is also an accused in many cases, including one lodged in connection with the theft of precious manuscripts and rare books from the 450-year Madrasa Alia, now known as Oriental College. During a raid by the police in September, the manuscripts and books were recovered from under the lift of a building inside the premises of Jauhar University.

The police had acted on an FIR registered in 2019 by the principal of the madrasa and information received from two of Khan’s aides who were arrested in a separate case, a UP police officer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

“There were two copies of the Quran lying on the floor, which did not go down well in the community,” the officer added.

With Khan in prison, party workers are now scared of voting in his support, as they look for “protection”.

“Forget about the Muslim community as a whole, but the party workers did not want to take the risk of getting identified with Azam Kham. They want to be protected. They chose to refrain from voting, but did not cast their votes for Khan sahab’s candidate,” said a senior leader, who is a zilla parishad member in Rampur.


Also read: ‘Bulldozer will roll’ — UP BJP MLA’s ‘demoralising’ threat to stop rebel candidates in civic polls


Dissensions within SP

“Abdul durrie nehi bichayega, vikas ka hissa banega” (Abdul will not spread the carpet, but will be a part of the development process) was a dominant slogan this election as some senior leaders close to Azam Khan, quit the SP after Raja’s candidature was announced.

Khan’s former spokesperson, Fasahat Ali Khan Shanu, left the party a day before the announcement and joined BJP.

Talking to The Print, Shanu said, “I have given 18 years of my life to Azam Khan. I did everything he asked me to and went to jail. There are 27 criminal cases slapped against me (as a party worker). But Azam Khan never supported me in the fight. Still, I stuck to the party. But, this time he fielded a Saifi Muslim as the candidate, who has no connect with the people and the community.”

“Khan built his empire based on the (support of) the Muslim community, earned money using all illegal ways and never gave anything back to Muslims,” he alleged.

According to Shanu, one needs to be “on the right side of mainstream politics in such a polarised situation”.

“Siding with Azam Khan will ruin all of us, the future of our kids. So I coined the slogan, Abdul vikas ka hissa banega,” he added.

In the bypolls, SP also lost in the booth where Azam Khan’s name is on the electoral rolls.

In the rural areas of Rampur, where the polling percentage was maximum and the booths had mostly Pathans, Turk and Yadav voters, the BJP led in most.

Of the constituency’s 454 booths, 133 were rural booths. BJP led in the Panwaria, Agapur, Fatehpur, Afzalpur, Dariyapur booths, where Pathan, Turk and Yadav votes acted as the deciding factor, according to the booth-wise result sheet.

In many of these constituencies, the BJP received help from some SP members, who either succeeded in transferring votes from SP to BJP, or asked Muslim voters to refrain from voting for any of the parties.

Mashkoor Ahmad Munna, a Turk community leader and SP member, did not quit the party, but admitted he engineered defections. Other senior leaders like Karan Singh Yadav and Parvez Khan, who have a hold over the Yadavs and Pathans living in the villages, said they were with him on this. The group, despite being part of SP, managed to transfer the Muslim votes in favour of the BJP, they said.

“Khan sahab never rewards loyalty. I have been with him for over three decades. He believes in dynasty politics. Rampur has seen the rule of fear by Azam Khan. He did not do anything for Muslims, only used them as votebanks. He captured all heritage institutions, and transformed them into his money-making machines,” said Munna.

Parvez Khan added: “This time, he fielded a candidate who belongs to the Saifi community, who has a minuscule share of votes in Rampur. This is the time that we teach him a lesson.”

Both Munna and Khan said that they would visit party president Akhilesh Yadav and tender their resignations from the party if Azam Khan was not removed from SP.

Allegation of coercion

According to the district administration, Rampur recorded around 34 per cent polling this election, which is the second-lowest voting percentage in the area in years. However, the district administration in its report to the Election Commission said that Rampur recorded around 31 per cent polling in the Lok Sabha by-election in June. The percentage of voting has thus gone up, it added. ThePrint has a copy of the report.

Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, divisional commissioner of Moradabad (of which Rampur is a part), said the district usually recorded around 50 to 54 per cent polling, barring one election when it recorded around 60 per cent. Singh did not specify the year when this happened.

“Rampur has seen at least three elections this year. There is a sense of irritation among the masses too. They did not want to come out to vote. The area is also high on migration. People go out for work and they don’t return to vote in a by-election,” Singh told ThePrint.

SP members hold out their index fingers to show that there was no mark of the indelible ink to indicate that they didn't vote | Photo: Madhuparna Das | ThePrint
SP members hold out their index fingers to show that there was no mark of the indelible ink to indicate that they didn’t vote | Madhuparna Das | ThePrint

The SP’s Asim Raja alleged that his party workers were not allowed to come out of their houses to vote. “Hundreds of our workers are injured. Our voters were not allowed to reach the booths, so the police ran havoc. We tried to lodge an FIR, but they did not accept it. We wrote to the ECI also.”

Party members and workers in Rampur who remain loyal to the SP echo Raja’s allegations.

Ariful Haque, another senior SP leader, claimed that he and his family members were sent back by the police when they tried to cast their vote. “No one from my 12-member family was allowed to reach the booth, which is just 400 meters away from the house.”

A group of party workers sitting at the SP office in Rampur held up their index fingers which were clean of the mark of the indelible ink to indicate that they hadn’t voted. “This way, the government should snatch the voting rights of Muslims,” alleged Haque.

Raja added that cases were slapped against his party colleagues to intimidate them.

The police administration, however, dismissed the allegations.

“They are putting allegations to justify their defeat. The election observers and media were there. If there was any untoward incident, there would have been outrage,” said Ashok Shukla, superintendent of police, Rampur.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: Lessons from UP Priyanka put to use in Himachal — ‘rebel management’, no naming PM, women’s issues


 

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