Azam Khan Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Azam Khan is an Indian lawyer and politician. He is a member of the Seventeenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. Khan is one of the founding members of the ‘Samajwadi Party’ in India.

Wiki/Biography

Azam Khan was born on 14 August 1948 (age 75 years; as of 2023) in Rampur district, Uttar Pradesh. His zodiac sign is Leo. After completing his schooling, he went to Aligarh Muslim University to pursue his graduation in Law. He graduated from there in 1974 and started working as a Lawyer. Thereafter, he joined politics in 1980.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5’ 7”

Hair Colour: Salt & Pepper

Eye Colour: Dark Brown

Family, Caste & Wife

Azam Khan belongs to a Muslim Family and follows Islam. He is the son of Mumtaz Khan. Not much is known about his mother and siblings. He got married to Tazeen Fatima who is a member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Khan has two sons. His son, Mohammad Abdulla Azam Khan, is also a politician.

Career

Azam Khan started his political career in 1980 with Janta Dal (Secular) when he first became the Member of Legislative Assembly from Rampur Constituency. During his second term, he moved to Lok Dal. Azam was a member Janata Dal in his third term as an MLA and then moved to Janata Party for his fourth term. In 1992, he co-founded the Samajwadi Party and became the MLA for the fifth time. Since 1993, he has been the member of the Samajwadi Party. He has served as an MLA for 9 terms from the Rampur constituency. Khan has also been the Cabinet Minister under the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Khan held the post of the General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party and he resigned from the same on 17 May 2009. He fell out with Mulayam Singh Yadav during the 15th Loksabha Elections and was expelled for six years from the party on 24 May 2009. However, the party later revoked his expulsion and Khan again became the member of Samajwadi Party on 4 December 2010. After his win in the 2014 elections, he again received a ticket from Rampur constituency by the Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and won against BJP’s Jaya Prada.

On 22 March 2022, he quit his Lok Sabha membership after he won the Rampur seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election. ^[1]Hindustan Times He took oath as an MLA on 23 May 2022 after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in an alleged cheating case. ^[2]Hindustan Times

Controversies

• On 28 August 2012, Azam used some abusive words for an Indian IAS Officer. He shouted- “Bakwas karte ho…chup baithiye…badtameez kaheen ke” (Stop talking non-sense…sit quietly…you ill-mannered).

• It is believed that Khan pressurised the police not to arrest the Muslims during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

• Khan made it to the headlines when he deployed a team of 100 policemen and a sniffer dog to find his missing buffaloes.

• On 21 November 2014, Azam demanded that Taj Mahal should be handed over to the Wakf Board. He was later criticised by the media on the grounds that Taj Mahal belongs to the entire country and not just a particular community.

• In October 2015, Azam commented that the Bhartiya Janata Party MP Mahesh Sharma should be arrested for conspiring to commit the murder of a man for eating beef in the Dadri village of Bisara.

• He hogged the spotlight by making a controversial comment on the November 2015 Paris Attacks. Khan said- “The Paris terror attacks were the result of the action of global superpowers like America and Russia and history will decide who is a terrorist.”

• By referring to the Kargil War, Khan once said: “The peaks of Kargil were conquered not by Hindu, but Pakistani soldiers.” His statement was criticized by the Indian media and an FIR was lodged against him. He, later, refused to apologize for his words and accused the Indian Election Commission of being biased against him because of his religion.

• Azam once held a birthday bash for Mulayam Yadav when he was a part of the Akhilesh Government and when some media persons sought to know who funded the birthday bash, Azam replied- “Fund Taliban se aaya hai. Kuch Dawood ne diya hai, kuch Abu Salem se aaya hai.”

• Khan was also accused of calling Bharatmata a “dayan” (witch). However, he later clarified that it was in the context of his religious beliefs.

• On 15 April 2019, an FIR was registered against Azam by the Uttar Pradesh Police for his “underwear jibe” against the BJP candidate Jaya Prada, who is fighting Lok Sabha polls from Rampur opposite him. He was, later, barred from campaigning by the Election Commission for 72 hours.

• In an alleged fake birth certificate of his son, Azam Khan was sent to jail on 26 February 2022. ^[3]Hindustan Times The first birth certificate, which was issued on 28 June 2012 by Rampur Nagar Palika, showed Rampur as Abdullah Azam Khan’s birthplace, while the second birth certificate, which was issued in January 2015, showed Lucknow as his birthplace. In October 2023, a court in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, held Azam, his wife, and son convicted in the case and sentenced them to seven years of jail. ^[4]India Today

• On 19n May 202, he was released from jail after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in an alleged cheating case. ^[5]Hindustan Times

• On 29 October 2022, he lost his membership in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly after his Rampur seat was declared vacant in a notification issued by the UP Assembly in the wake of his three years’ imprisonment awarded by an MP/MLA court in a 2019 hate speech case. ^[6]The Times of India However, he was acquitted by an MP-MLA sessions court in Rampur on 24 May 2023. ^[7]The Hindu

• On 15 July 2023, he was sentenced to a two-year prison term by a court in Rampur. The case pertained to a hate speech that took place during the parliamentary election campaign in 2019. The court found him guilty of violating several sections of the Representation of the People Act, namely Section 125 (which deals with promoting enmity between different social groups in relation to an election), Sections 171 G (related to making false statements in connection with an election), and 505 (1) B (which pertains to intentionally causing fear or alarm to the public or a specific section of the public). The case against him was registered on 8 April 2019 at the Shahjad Nagar police station in Rampur. The inflammatory speech targeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the then District Magistrate of Rampur, Aunjaneya Kumar Singh. ^[8]The Hindu

Salary/Net Worth

As a Lok Sabha Member, Azam Khan gets paid a salary of approximately Rs. 1 Lakh + other allowances per month. His net worth is estimated to be Rs. 4.61 Crore (as of 2019)

Facts

• Azam Khan is the longest serving MLA, after Ganpatrao Deshmukh, who served as an MLA 11 times.

• Before founding the Samajwadi Party, Azam has been a member of four other political parties.

• Azam has served as an MLA for 9 terms from Rampur Assembly Constituency.

• His residence is at Mohalla-Dheramirabaj Khan, Tanki No.-5, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India.

• The “Y-category” security cover provided to Azam Khan by the Uttar Pradesh government was withdrawn in July 2023, as the government deemed it unnecessary at that time. ^[9]The Indian Express