Azam Khan's wife to contest Rampur assembly bypoll

 In a surprise move, the Samajwadi Party on Sunday named Tanzeen Fatima as its candidate from Rampur.

Tanzeen Fatima is a Rajya Sabha MP and also the wife of Samajwadi MP Mohd Azam Khan.

The Rampur Assembly seat fell vacant after Azam Khan was elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year.

The idea behind fielding Tanzeen Fatima is to cash in on the sympathy factor. Azam Khan and his family members have been booked in 84 cases of land grabbing, forgery, book theft, buffalo and goat theft, encroachment and state theft in the past three month.

The Samajwadi Party, on Sunday, also declared candidates for five assembly seats going to by-polls.

Sudhakar Singh will be party's candidate from Ghosi, while Nirbhay Singh Patel will be the candidate from Manikpur. The party has given ticket to Gaurav Kumar Rawat from Zaidpur. Subhash Rai will be the SP candidate from Jalalpur, while Brijesh Verma Patel will be party candidate from Pratapgarh.

Polling for the by-elections will be held on October 21 and the counting of votes will be held on October 24.IANS