Azam Khan meets Akhilesh amid rift rumours

Samajwadi Party leader Mohamnad Azam Khan met party president Akhilesh Yadav at his residence on Friday. This was the second meeting between the two leaders since Khan’s release from jail.

Khan was accompanied by his son Abdullah Azam.

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The meeting took place amid speculation of a rift between the two leaders. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes.

Just 30 days earlier, Akhilesh had visited Rampur and met Azam in a closed room.

After the meeting, Khan told the media, “Akhilesh is busy with the Bihar elections. I came to express my pain. I came to tell him what I have been going through but I cannot tell you what we discussed.”

Azam Khan said, “Now even my opponents are coming to meet me.”

Asked about RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s statement calling Owaisi an extremist leader, the Samajwadi Party leader said, “Everyone should learn a lesson from me. They should learn from my fate. I could lose my membership for calling him a ‘tankhaiya’ (guilty of religious misconduct). I could be punished. Then why are others spoiling the atmosphere?

“What is the need to cultivate the garden of hatred? This will cause great harm to weak Muslims. Have pity on us. They want to destroy us. For God’s sake, have pity on us. Do not destroy us,” he said.

Regarding the Prime Minister’s statement about pistols in Bihar, he said, “In our place, the son of a pistol seller became an MLA. He’s been provided with commandos.”

Azam said, “UP is a strange, poor state. It has Ayodhya, Mathura, and Kashi. Why do they want us to be torn apart? One phase of the elections is left. For God’s sake, spare us. We were also told that. We don’t need to prove anything about ourselves.”

Regarding security, he said, “I haven’t received any security. I haven’t seen any letters.”

Meanwhile, the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav posted an emotional post on “X” immediately after the meeting with Azam Khan on Friday. He wrote, “I wonder how many memories he brought with him when he came to our house today! This reconciliation is our shared heritage.”