LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday visited the family of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari at his home in Ghazipur, and said he hoped the truth of his death would come out and the family will get justice.
"It's shocking that Mukhtar Ansari himself made apprehensions that he is being given poison (in jail)... I hope the government will bring truth (of death) before us and the family will get justice," Yadav told reporters after meeting Ansari's family.
Ansari, a five-time MLA from Mau, died due to cardiac arrest, on March 28, as per the government. However, the family members allege that he was given poison inside the jail.
Yadav, who was here to console the family, said that after the BJP came to power, trust on institutions have come down.
"We have seen in UP that people are doing self-immolation at the chief minister's residence, office for justice. Deaths are taking place inside jails. In custodial deaths, UP is leading," he alleged.
He alleged that as the government did nothing for development, to increase income of farmers, it has "no face to go before the people" which was seen in the language used by the BJP leaders in elections.
In an obvious reference to Ansari's death, raising suspicion on the government, Yadav asked, "Kya sarkar ghatnayein kara rahi hai laabh lene ke liye? (Are incidents taking place at the government's behest for political gains?"
"There were not one or two... but 9–10 paper leaks in the state. What the government has to say about it, unemployment, the Agniveer scheme?" he said and claimed that if the BJP came to power again, such schemes will be introduced in the police force also.
Hailing the "contribution" of Ansari's family, Yadav claimed that due to the work done for the poor, he won elections from jail and his grandfather and maternal grandfather were freedom fighters—the face that the government wanted to hide. "The image shown is not the real image that he (Mukhtar) carried on the ground," he said.
Mukhtar Ansari's son Umar Ansari said that Yadav had come to console his family and he was like a guardian.
The Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Mukhtar's brother Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur. In the 2019 election, Afzal won from the seat on BSP ticket defeating BJP's Manoj Sinha.