UP elections: As jailed Azam Khan files nomination, criminal records of SP neta accessed

Amid uproar, Samajwadi Party candidate Azam Khan filed his nomination for Rampur Sadar seat from inside Sitapur jail on Wednesday. The Returning Officer from Rampur visited the jail to get his nomination papers after an order was issued by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Rampur Court. The constituency from which Khan is contesting will go to the polls in the second phase on February 14 of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh elections. 

Criminal antecedents of Azam Khan 

Meanwhile, Republic Media Network has accessed the criminal antecedents of Azam Khan, who is lodged in Sitapur jail since Feb 2020. There are as many as 77 criminal cases filed against the Samajwadi Party's Rampur candidate, most of which pertain to Indian Penal Code sections 153 (A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 159 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 509 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 448 (house tress pass), 500 (defamation). 

Also, Azam Khan has been booked for electoral malpractices as well. In several cases, he has been under Section 171 G (False statement in connection with an election)

'BJP has filed the cases'

Facing the heat for giving party tickets to Azam Khan and others with criminal backgrounds,  SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday defended the party's decision by saying that most of the cases against its candidates had been filed by the BJP government.

In a bid to turntables at BJP, Yadav said that the saffron party's 'Captain' CM Yogi Adityanath and 'vice captains' Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma along with 82 of the 195 candidates named for the Uttar Pradesh assembly had a 'criminal background'. 

Taking to microblogging site Twitter, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the Central government of BJP by raking up the Lakhimpur incident. "And in Delhi team, in their honour…BJP should declare 'Lakhimpur' as capital instead of Lucknow!" he wrote in Hindi. 

Elections in UP will be conducted in 7 phases. While the first phase of the Election will be held on February 10, voting for the second, third, fourth, and fifth phases will take place on February 14, 20, 23, and 27, respectively. The sixth phase will see voting on March 3 while the voting for the seventh phase will be held on March 7. The counting of votes for all the phases will take place on March 10.