With nowhere to go, gangster and mafia don Mukhtar Ansari on Thursday embraced the BSP, the party which divorced him seven years ago for alleged involvement in criminal activities. Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal (QED) has merged with the BSP as part of a deal which will allow the don and two of his family members to contest the upcoming Assembly polls on the BSP tickets.
BSP supremo Mayawati announced the candidature of Ansari, his sons Afzal, Abbas and brother Sigbatullah as the alliance nominee. Ansari is currently lodged in lucknow jail.
The merger comes just days after the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) joined hands with the Congress ostensibly to woo the Muslim votes in the crucial State. Announcing their induction into the party at a Press conference, Mayawati defended the move saying that the allegations against the jailed leader have been not been proven so far.
“In par lage aarop abhi tak saabit nahi kar paaye iss baat ko dhyaan mein rakh kar aaj party mein wapas liya (The allegations against him haven’t been proven so far; keeping that in mind, we have inducted him once again into the party),” said Mayawati.
Out of the 403 seats up for grabs, the BSP has fielded now around 100 Muslim candidates which is a dozen more than in 2012 and the highest ever tally along with 113 candidates from upper castes, 106 candidates from backward castes and 87 Dalits for upcoming polls.
Muslims account for nearly 20 per cent of the voters in Uttar Pradesh. Muslims, who had by and large supported the SP in the 2012 elections, are in dilemma following the factional fight between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mukhtar Ansari will once again contest from Mau Sadar and his son Abbas from Ghosi. “There have not been any criminal elements in the BSP, but if some people want to improve under the BSP umbrella, we give them a chance,” Mayawati added. Former SP loyalist Ambika Chaudhary who recently joined the BSP had already indicated that Ansari could join the party’s foray for upcoming polls.
Ansari is a four-time MlA who first won on a BSP ticket from Mau in 1996. After unsuccessfully contesting the 2009 lok Sabha elections, Ansari was expelled from the BSP for “criminal activities” in April 2010 after which he went on to form Quami Ekta Dal with his brothers. The recent turf war within the Samajwadi Party took an ugly turn when former State unit president Shivpal Yadav invited Ansari to merge his party with the SP. Akhilesh Yadav was against the merger and was quite vocal about it. The bitter feud, however, culminated with Akhilesh ousting his father Mulayam Singh Yadav from the national president post.