Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja on Thursday filed his nomination for the bypoll to Rampur assembly seat in the presence of senior party leader Azam Khan. The December 5 by-election to the Rampur seat was necessitated after the disqualification of Azam Khan following his conviction and three-year jail term in a hate speech case.
Raja, considered close to Khan, had earlier this year contested the Rampur parliamentary bypoll as SP candidate but lost to BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi. The parliamentary bypoll was held after Khan, who had won the seat in 2019, vacated it after being elected to the state assembly.
Earlier in the day, Khan addressed a public meeting at the party office in Rampur and recalled how he had been standing with his people in the past 45 years. Addressing the meeting, Khan referred to the parliamentary bypoll held in June and said “we lost but it was not our fault”.
“Did the election actually take place? If this is how things happen, then there is no need to call it (election) a festival of democracy,” Khan said. He, however, exuded confidence that his party will win the bypoll to Rampur assembly seat.
Recalling his long public life, Khan said, “I have never taken the name of my enemy in a disrespectful manner. The person who has led you for 45 years, the person who has stayed with you, shared your tears for 45 years, see how his name is being taken.”
