Senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan will be launching his son Abdullah Azam Khan in politics in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan will be launching his son Abdullah Azam Khan in politics in the upcoming Assembly elections. Mr Khan’s wife Tanzeen Fatima is also a Rajya Sabha MP from the Samajwadi Party.
Abdullah, 27, is also the CEO of the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, of which Azam Khan is the lifetime chancellor.
Mr Khan, while talking to reporters in Rampur, announced that his son would contest the Assembly elections form the Swar Tanda seat in Rampur that is presently held by Nawab Kazim Ali, a Congress MLA who crossed over to the BSP in August.
Mr Khan said that his son holds a degree in structural engineering and stepped into politics by default.
“In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, I was prevented from campaigning by the Election Commission. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was addressing a meeting in Swar Tanda, when he suddenly asked Abdullah to address the meeting. Abdullah was totally unprepared but did a good job,” he explained.
Abdullah had spoken of the discrimination suffered by Muslims, and even taken on the Election Commission for banning his father from campaigning.
“Since then, people have been demanding that Abdullah should join politics so this time, he will be fulfilling the wishes of the people”, Mr Khan said.
The senior minister, however, denied that he was promoting family in politics.
“The seat Swar Tanda is not a Samajwadi stronghold and the going will be tough for Abdullah. If I wanted to promote him, I would have chosen a safer seat for him”, he added.
