Meerut: Hours after walking out of jail following nearly 350 days, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abdullah Azam addressed a cheering crowd from a car sunroof on Saturday night, deploying couplets and a sharp political warning to rivals ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
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Waving to the crowd, he drew on his father’s signature shayari-laced oratory style, quoting a couplet on stature and humility: “Kisi ke qad ka andaza nahi hota, woh aasmaan hai phir bhi sar jhukaye chalta hai (You cannot measure a person’s true stature, he is as grand as the sky, yet walks with humility). ” Though ED’s intervention signals continued legal battles for the family, Abdullah’s public address and use of poetry have served to reassert his presence in the region, bringing Rampur’s high-stakes political contest back into sharp focus. The release of the father-son duo was immediately followed by a fresh legal twist, as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials detained SP stalwart Azam Khan soon after he stepped out of custody. As ED officials led his father away, Abdullah reached out to his supporters, who had gathered in large numbers to welcome him. Download the TOI App.
Without explicitly naming him, Abdullah took aim at BJP MLA Akash Saxena—who has filed multiple cases against the family and subsequently won the Rampur bypoll.
Standing atop the vehicle as supporters chanted “dekho, dekho kaun aaya, sher aaya (look, look who has arrived, the lion has come!),” Abdullah directly targeted his political opponents with an eye on the 2027 polls. He warned that if a “contractual MLA” believed he would repeat his victory in 2027, “that will not happen now,” adding, “Inshallah. Raising his hand toward the crowd, he said, “One youth from among you is enough to defeat people like him. Describing his father as “a very big force,” Abdullah signed off with another line of verse: “A brief silence, then revolution will come. Simultaneously, large political hoardings appeared across Rampur bearing slogans such as “Jail ke tale toot gaye, Azam Khan chhoot gaye (the locks of the jail has broken, Azam Khan has been freed)” and promising that “every injustice” done to the family would be accounted for once a new govt is formed.
Your time has come, contractual ones; your era will come. By Sunday afternoon, the mood outside Azam Khan’s residence in Rampur turned muted. the doors remained shut and the surrounding lane wore a quiet look—a stark contrast to the crowd and slogans that marked the release the previous evening While visitors continued to drop by.