The fiery leader from Rampur is always in overdrive to emerge as the sole voice and face of the Muslim community.

Lucknow: In Uttar Pradesh, no one messes around with Mohammad Azam Khan. The fiery leader from Rampur is always in overdrive to emerge as the sole voice and face of the Muslim community, and does not take kindly to any attempt by any other Muslim leader to even speak out as a representative of the community.

After the Election Commission’s recent decision to bar him from participating in election campaign meetings or roadshows, the Samajwadi Party has brought out Khan’s son to don the Muslim campaigner’s mantle, rather than replace him with any other Muslim leader within SP.

Both Azam Khan and BJP’s Amit Shah, who too has been prohibited from further campaigning, have already set the ball rolling and the voter’s mind has been made, according to several members of the Muslim community. Although Azam’s absence from campaigning is being deeply felt by the SP, it is widely believed that the die has been cast.

“Azam Khan has been propped up by the Samajwadi Party as a symbol of minority identity because of his extreme posturing,” Athar Husain, director of think tank Centre for Objective Research and Development (CORD), said.

“Individually, he is not much of a community leader even outside Rampur, but it is only because of being propped up by Mulayam Singh Yadav that Khan has developed himself into a self-styled spokesman for the entire community,” he said.

Khan’s son Abdullah Azam Khan made his first speech in a town near Rampur on Saturday, in which he said his father had been wronged and appealed to people to support the SP. Abdullah is a civil engineer pursuing higher studies in Noida.

It was while pursuing his LLM degree in 1975-76 at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) that Khan won the students union election for the post of general secretary. He was at the forefront of an agitation to protect the minority character of the university. It was the Emergency era and he was soon jailed, and when he came out he jumped into electoral politics. He has contested ten Assembly elections so far, losing only two -in 1977 and 1996 - both to the Congress.

The rivalry between Congress leader Begum Noor Bano, who hails from the family of the former Nawab of Rampur, and Khan is well known. By challenging the erstwhile royals Khan has earned the support of many locals.

As Minister for Urban Development, Khan has ensured proper water and electricity supply in Rampur and his tenacity in getting Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University established in Rampur and then getting government aid for it has also won him many supporters.

Despite his stature, all Muslims too do not consider Khan to be a representative of their community, and he does not have a sizeable following in the Shia community.

Outside the state he is not acknowledged as a leader having the ability to influence the community’s views.

"He does not particularly elicit any respect among the Shias," Abbas Rizvi, a social worker active in Lucknow and Barabanki, said.

"It suits the Samajwadi Party to have a single window kind of an individual to engage with the Muslim community," Athar Husain said.

Khan’s aggressive nature and brusque manner ensures that he stands out as a leader. In fact, despite their standing and qualifications, other Muslim leaders in the party like retired IPS officer and now health minister, Ahmad Hasan, minister Shahid, former spokespersons like journalist Shahid Siddiqui and chartered accountant Kamal Faruqi, have never been able to receive the confidence of the party chief.

"Azam pointedly does not give any importance to religious leaders or any other maualana or maulvis, be it Taukeer Raza or the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, thus reiterating his stature," Husain said.

Khan also does not lose any opportunity to make snide comments about other Muslim leaders, often denigrating them as being of no consequence.

“His antagonism with the Shahi Imam and his family members is well-known, and it emanates from this presumption that it is Khan who is a representative of Muslims rather than anyone else," Husain said.

In May 2009, Khan had resigned as SP general secretary before the Lok Sabha election over his opposition to Jaya Prada being the party's Rampur candidate. It was basically opposition to the growing clout of Amar Singh and the induction of Kalyan Singh into the party.

However, the SP fared badly in the election and forced Mulayam Singh to revoke Khan’s expulsion and in December 2010 he was taken back into the party.

After the 2012 assembly election in which the SP emerged victorious, Khan was initially reluctant to join the state cabinet when it was clear that Akhilesh Yadav would be chief minister, but he finally relented.

On 25 July 2012, Azam Khan offered to resign after being removed as minister-in-charge of Meerut. His absence from the SP national executive meeting in Agra in September last year led to speculation as it was rumoured that he was unhappy over the handling of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

Over the years, his language has become more acerbic and during campaigns he does not waste a single opportunity to give controversial statements in his typical style to prove that Muslims are as loyal as Hindus - if not more – towards the idea of India.

In the campaign this year, he has, at different times, urged the voters to “vote against the murderers of Muzaffarnagar,” called Modi a “elder brother of a puppy,” termed Amit Shah as “goonda number 1,”. And, in the most contentious one of all, said that “those who fought for victory in Kargil were not Hindu soldiers, in fact the ones who fought for our victory were Muslim soldiers.”

This statement was strongly condemned by politicians, retired defence officers and others. It was felt that Azam was attempting to divide even the Army among caste and religion lines for electoral gains.

It was then that the Election Commission took note of his remarks. But the next day Azam said that Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were punished by Allah for “forcible” sterilization during the Emergency and shilanyas at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The next day the Election Commission announced action against him and also wrote a letter to the UP government to lodge an FIR against Khan for making “highly inflammatory speeches.”

In the same announcement, action was taken against BJP’s Amit Shah and FIRs lodged against him as well.

Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav have termed the EC action against Khan “unjustified” and have described Khan as a “secular leader” and appealed to the Election Commission to reconsider its decision.