The Samajwadi Party on Monday said though the Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal (QED) has merged with itself, the mafia don turned Independent MlA will not contest the next Assembly election on its party symbol. Mukhtar Ansari, presently in jail on the charges of murder of the BJP MlA Krishnanand Rai and an independent MlA from Mau district.
State president of the Samajwadi Party Shivpal Yadav said on Monday that “Samajwadi party has nothing to do with Mukhtar Ansari, he is an independent MlA from Mau and he will contest the next Assembly election as an independent candidate’’. He added “only the brothers of the MlA, Afzal Ansari, president of the QED and Sibgatullah Ansari will contest the Assembly election on the election symbol of the Samajwadi party’’. Afzal Ansari is also the former MP of the Samajwadi party from Ghazipur.
On October 8, QED president Afzal Ansari had met the Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to formalise the alliance with the ruling party. After the meeting Afzal Ansari had claimed that the alliance was finalised several months back but was held up due to some difficulties and the contentious issues have been sorted out. He had also claimed that Mukhtar Ansari will contest the next Assembly election as Samajwadi party candidate. Afzal had said that now even the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also accepted the alliance.
Samajwadi party had first announced the merger of the QED on June 21. On same day Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had sacked the senior Minister and party leader from Azamgarh Balram Yadav from the cabinet. The Minister had played a key role in negotiations between the3 two parties ahead of the merger.
Following the vehement Opposition by the Chief Minister, the Samajwadi party had called the meeting of the parliamentary board of the party to take the call on the contentious issue. The board decided to revoke the merger and few days later Balram Yadav was reinducted in the Cabinet.
Samajwadi party sources ruled out the possibility of yet another roll back of the decision of the merger of the QED with the party. A senior SP leader said as announced earlier Samajwadi party will hold a rally in Mohammadabad town of the Ghazipur in November. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will preside over the rally. Mohammadabad is the native town of the Ansari brothers and sibgatullah Ansari is presently the MlA from this seat.