Samajwadi Party member of parliament from Rampur, Mohammad Azam Khan, lashed out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party government had failed to engineer communal divide and pit Hindu and Muslims against each other.
Khan levelled the charge while campaigning for the by-election to Rampur assembly seat from where his wife Tazeen Fatma is the SP candidate.
“What did you do with Lord Ram? You wanted to use Lord Ram to make Muslims fight the Hindus, but we never had any issues with Lord Ram. You are happy with your religion, I am happy with mine, this is the reality of Hindustan,” Khan said at a rally in Rampur on Wednesday.
“India is for everyone and this was why the partition of the country happened. People who wanted to choose religion went to the country made on that ground and the ones who wanted the rule of law and Constitution stayed here. That is why we stayed in Hindustan, not for seeing innocents being killed on the streets,” Azam Khan said.
 Without naming Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the SP MP said, “You said power was not supplied during Diwali but only during Eid. How can you lie so much? You discriminated between the walls of graveyards and crematorium, this was not the Hindustan people saw from 1942 to 1947,” he said.
By-elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held on October 21 and one of the most closely watched contests is for Rampur assembly seat, where the BJP aims to breach the SP fortress by defeating Tazeen Fatma.
The bypoll was necessitated after sitting MLA Azam Khan was elected to Lok Sabha.
Khan accused the present government of not  doing much for the development of Rampur and challenged Yogi to announce projects for the region during his upcoming visit to the constituency.
“Two-and-half years have passed and not even Rs 2.5 has been invested in Rampur by this regime. During my rule, I invested close to Rs 250 crore in the constituency. When a small-time MLA like me can manage Rs 250 crore investment, then the Chief Minister must announce projects worth at least Rs 2,500 crore,” Azam Khan said.
The SP leader refuted charges of land-grabbing and other cases slapped on him over the last few months and termed them a conspiracy by the administration.