LUCKNOW, Sept. 24 -- At 77, after nearly five years of incarceration and a long detachment from active politics, Mohammad Azam Khan remains a force to reckon with in Rampur and adjoining districts of the Rohilkhand region. When Khan walked out of Sitapur jail on Tuesday, political parties watched closely, eager to gauge his next move. His release drew sharp reactions from leaders of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), fuelling speculation about its impact on state politics, particularly in the Muslim-dominated Rohilkhand belt where Khan has held sway for decades. A 10-term MLA from Rampur and a one-term MP, Khan has dominated the region's politics since the early 1990s. His wife Tazeen Fatima has also represented Rampur in the assembly, while his son Abdullah Azam twice won from Suar. By eclipsing Rampur's erstwhile Nawab family, Khan established himself as the Muslim face of the SP. Politics in Rampur, however, has shifted during Khan's absence. BJP's Akash Saxena is now the sitting MLA, with the party consolidating its presence through its development plank. Many landmarks built under SP rule have either faded in prominence or been razed. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Maulana Mohibullah Nadvi, a cleric at Delhi's Parliament Street mosque, won the Rampur seat for SP, defeating BJP's Ghanshyam Lodhi by 87,434 votes. Khan's supporters, however, kept away from campaigning to signal their unhappiness with the SP leadership over candidate selection. There are 42% Muslim, 17% Dalit, 23% OBC, 14% upper caste and 3% Sikh voters in the Rampur Lok constituency. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP candidate Nepal Singh secured victory by defeating SP's Naseer Ahmed Khan. In 2019, Azam Khan defeated BJP candidate Jaya Prada. In the bypoll held in 2022, Lodhi wrested the seat, defeating SP candidate Asim Raza. Azam Khan has secured victory from Rampur assembly seat in 1980, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022 assembly elections....