Lucknow: The family of jailed Samajwadi Party veteran Azam Khan on Thursday visited party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s residence to offer condolences on the demise of his step-younger brother Prateek Yadav, whose mortal remains were consigned to flames earlier in the day. Prateek breathed his last at his house early Wednesday morning.
Although Azam Khan’s family was not known to be particularly close to Prateek, the veteran politician enjoyed a long relationship with Prateek’s father and SP patriarch the late Mulayam Singh Yadav. Azam’s wife and former MP Tazeen Fatima, elder son Adeeb Azam, and others reached Akhilesh’s Vikramaditya Marg residence on Thursday evening. They spent over an hour together.
Posting a photograph of the meeting, Akhilesh wrote: ‘Dukh mein sab saath hain’ (united in times of sorrow). In political circles, the photograph of the meeting is being seen as a reaffirmation of the bond that the two families share.
The meeting has put to rest speculations of strained political relations between Azam’s family and the SP chief. Earlier, there were speculations that all was not well between the SP’s tallest Muslim leader and the party leadership. There were insinuations that Azam’s family believed the party had not done enough to secure the release of Azam and his son Abdullah from jail – a charge which Azam had denied while he was out of jail for a brief period.
Azam and his son Abdullah Azam are presently in jail after a Rampur court in 2025 sentenced the two to seven years in prison for using forged PAN cards.
