LUCKNOW: While gangster Munna Bajrangi was a close associate of BSP turncoat Mukhtar Ansari, his killer Sunil Rathi too had a his links in BSP.
His mother Rajbala Chaudhary contested 2017 UP Assembly elections from Chhaprauli assembly constituency in Baghpat district on BSP ticket.
Rajbala, the three-time chairman from Tikrihet nagar panchayat, gained much prominence amongst the BSP ranks in the west UP region and got ticket from Chhaprauli but lost the election by a margin of over 30,000 votes to RLD's Sahendra Singh Ramala.
Ramala, the lone RLD MLA is now with the BJP. In fact, Sunil Rathi, who has his fiefdom in Uttarakhand and western UP, campaigned for her mother extensively after getting released on bail from Tihar jail in a case related to attack on Chinu Pandit gang in Uttarakhand in which three person were killed.
As per BSP functionaries in west UP region, Rathi, after reacs village Tikri in Baghpat in June, 2016, was given a rousing welcome by BSP functionaries and scores of villagers too gathered around Rathi's house.
He then stood on the roof top of his house and appealed the people to ensure win of his mother as a tribute to his father, Naresh Rathi who was killed following a rivalry in the village.
Earlier, in 2011, Rathi had murdered deputy jailor of Roorkee jail and had a number of cases of contract killing, extortion, abduction or ransom lodge against him.