How BJP snatched Azam Khan’s turf Rampur from SP

Apart from an undercurrent of fear and hate among the locals against Khan, BJP has found a new support base among Pasmanda Muslims for the first time in its history.

Lucknow, Dec 08: The ruling BJP has pulled out a surprise win in Samajwadi Party strongman Azam Khan's home turf Rampur. BJP candidate Akash Saxena defeated his Samajwadi Party rival Asim Raja with a margin as high as 33,702 votes. The by-election to the Assembly segment was necessitated due to the disqualification of Azam Khan following his conviction in a 2019 hate speech case.

The victory is being considered as 'historic' for the saffron party as Rampur has a majority Muslim population. It is for the first time that the BJP has won the seat here. The seat was earlier won by Azam Khan and his family members continuously since 2002. Azam Khan himself won the seat between 1980 and 1993 on tickets of different parties.

What led to SP's debacle

What exactly must have brewed there that led BJP to such a major victory in this highly unlikely seat? Media reports suggest that Khan was quite notorious in the area due to his criminal activities and that there was an undercurrent of fear and hate against him among the locals, including Muslims, due to his actions.

However, political observers have found a new factor behind BJP's victory - Pasmanda Muslims, considered as the lower class in the religious community who constitute around 85% of their population. Though Muslim leaders keep denying the existence of any caste system in the community, the fact is that a major fault line lies among the Muslims in India in the form of numerous castes and sub-castes in the community.

The Ashrafi Muslims, considered as the upper class and constitute only 15% among them, have always dominated the community and enjoyed all the privileges that are showered on the Muslims by successive governments, leaving the Pasmandas in the lurch. Pasmandas are the native, converted Muslims who still have kept patriotism alive in their hearts.

According to statistics, around 400 Muslim leaders have so far been elected to the Lok Sabha from different parties since Independence. But only 60 of them belong to the Pasmanda community, whose genuine concerns have always been suppressed by the Ashrafis. This has led the Pasmindas to vote for BJP now as they see the party as a 'saviour' for them which can take them on the path of development.

Azam Khan's misdeeds

According to a media report, Khan was booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in August 2019 based on 26 cases of land-grabbing registered by people in Rampur against him. Khan was found to have grabbed the land of some villagers, including Muslims, for the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. He was facing dozens of cases of land-grabbing in the area.

The Rampur district administration put Khan's name on the 'anti-land mafia' portal in July 2019 after 13 FIRs were lodged against him on land-grabbing charges. The name of Alay Hasan Khan, a former circle officer in Rampur, was also put on the same list. Both Khan and Hasan were named in the FIRs lodged by 26 local farmers, accusing them of forcibly acquiring their land for the university during the Samajwadi regime in the state, according to another media report.

"As many as 26 farmers had claimed that Azam Khan and his close aide Alay Hasan Khan acquired their land for the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University through coercion," the district magistrate said, confirming the allegations.