UP Assembly bypolls: Rampur MP Azam Khan’s wife Tazeen Fatima will contest bypoll from Rampur Assembly seat, the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced on Sunday. Fatima is also a member of Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party. The Rampur Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after Khan, who is facing land grab allegations, was elected to the Lok Sabha in the parliamentary polls held in April-May.

With this announcement, the SP has declared the names of 10 bypoll candidates, leaving the Iglas (SC) seat in Aligarh for its alliance partner, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). “For the Rampur Assembly seat, the party has decided to field Tazeen Fatima, the wife of Rampur MP Azam Khan. Tazeen is currently a Rajya Sabha MP,” SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

Reports suggest that SP has given the ticket to Fatima from the Assembly seat once held by her husband to encash people’s sympathy for her husband and other family members who have been booked in several cases. Khan’s son Abdullah Azam, who has also been booked in multiple cases, is also an MLA from Swar assembly seat.

The Rampur MP has been booked in more than 80 cases — 30 cases of alleged land grabbing in his constituency with at least nine of them registered in just five days. The court had cancelled his bail in 28 cases.

Earlier, SP Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and party chief Akhilesh Yadav had lent full support to Azam Khan. Mulayam Singh Yadav came out in full support of Azam Khan and alleged that he was being targeted unnecessarily by the administration at the behest of the state government. The SP chief has recently said that all cases lodged against Rampur MP would be withdrawn if the Samajwadi Party comes to power in the state.

Last week, the Election Commission announced that polling for 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, mostly belonging to MLAs who won the Lok Sabha polls and resigned as members of the state Assembly, will be held on October 21.

The bypolls will be held for the Gangoh, Rampur, Iglas (SC), Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar, Manikpur, Pratapgarh, Zaidpur (SC), Jalalpur, Balha (SC) and Ghosi Assembly constituencies.