Samajwadi Party leader and Lok Sabha member from Rampur, Mohammad Azam Khan, said the Bharatiya Janata Party government had unleashed politics of vendetta against him and he was being hounded for political reasons.

The SP leader, while campaigning for his wife

Tazeen Fatma, who is the SP candidate from the Rampur assembly constituency in the ongoing bypolls, became emotional while addressing an election rally.

Khan said that in his political journey, in which he always stood up for the masses, he also lost the institutions which he had opened for the common good.

“I thought there were people who considered me as a good politician and a good person. In this long political journey, I have not gained a kilo of weight but instead lost 22 kg weight,” he said.

“What is the point if all the universities and schools that I have opened for children shut down? If I lose these institutions and my weight then I will be left with nothing,” he added.

The member of parliament who held the

Rampur assembly seat for nine terms, said in his long political career, he gained nothing but was only questioned for being a Muslim.

The SP leader also slammed the Yogi Adityanath government in UP for launching a probe against him for alleged illegal possession of land.

“I am being called a criminal because I am your lawyer. I have been framed in false cases because I fought for the general public and general good. On the triple talaq and Ayodhya Ram mandir issues, I said that everyone should wait for the court’s decisions. I said nothing more, and yet I am being punished.”

Khan is currently facing a slew of criminal cases in connection with encroachment of land by the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. He is presently booked in 84 cases with charges that include land-grabbing, encroachment, theft of books, statues, buffaloes and goats, and forgery.