SP leadership overlooks Azam Khan on crucial issues

LUCKNOW: Once a powerful voice in the SP, senior minister Azam Khan is increasingly finding his actions under scrutiny of the government and is being overlooked on crucial issues.

Even the party with which he has been associated with for more than two decades is debating his usefulness in the changed political environment and is hesitating from pressing him into the by-election campaign, which begins next week.

The voices of dissent against Khan have grown so loud among the SP cadres, that the leadership has all but decided not to field him in the election campaign, a dramatic turn from days when he used to be the prime campaigner across the state. The LS debacle of the SP and the front that Khan has opened against prominent cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad Naqvi has diminished his clout within the party and government.

The invitation to Khan’s bitter foe Amar Singh by SP chief Mulayam Singh to attend a function in the state capital, also caused much discomfort to Khan. Some other Muslim ministers, including Ahmed Hassan and Shahid Manzoor, are being given much prominence these days. However, what might hurt the 66-year-old leader the most is the SP leadership’s decision to keep him out of the by-polls campaigning now.