LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati on Friday announced that her party will not field any bahubali (strongman) or mafia, including Ansari in the crucial 2022 assembly polls in the state.
While denying the party ticket to Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari, the former CM announced that the BSP will strive not to field any bahubali (strongman) or mafia in the coming assembly polls. “In line with this decision only, it has been decided not to field Mukhtar Ansari from the Mau seat of Azamgarh division. Instead, the state party president Bhim Rajbhar will be fielded from the Mau seat,” Mayawati tweeted.
Interestingly, in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, when the BSP had fielded Mukhtar Ansari against BJP stalwart Dr Murli Manohar Joshi from the Varanasi seat, the then UP CM Mayawati had reportedly likened the same gangster-turned-politician to Robin Hood.
While addressing an election rally at Varanasi’s Benia Bag ground in support of Ansari (who is now lodged at Banda Jail in UP) in April 2009, the BSP chief had likened Ansari to Robin Hood. Describing Ansari as innocent, Mayawati had said that a man who fights those who harass poor people cannot be termed as a criminal just by implicating him in false cases.
Both Mukhtar Ansari and his elder sibling Afzal Ansari, who had contested the 2009 LS polls on BSP tickets from East UP’s Varanasi and Ghazipur seats respectively, however, had failed to win.
“After the decision of not fielding strongmen-mafia and those with criminal background in 2022 polls, I appeal party’s local in-charges across the state to keep in mind this important aspect while selecting candidates for next year’s polls, to ensure that once in power, the party’s government doesn’t face any problem in acting against such shady elements,” Mayawati tweeted further.
Importantly, Mukhtar Ansari won five consecutive assembly polls from the Mau seat of Mau district since 1996. His first win from the East UP seat in 1996 was on a BSP ticket only. In 2009, he unsuccessfully contested the LS polls from Varanasi, but just a year later, both Ansari siblings Mukhtar and Afzal were expelled from the BSP.
Seven years later, Mayawati had inducted Mukhtar and brother Afzal again in the BSP. While Mukhtar won from Mau assembly seat in 2017 UP Assembly polls, again as BSP candidate (despite a strong BJP wave), his elder brother won from Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat two years later as BSP nominee, defeating ex-union minister and sitting BJP Manoj Sinha (presently the J&K Lt. Governor) in 2019 general elections with SP support.
Just two weeks back, the eldest among the Ansari brothers, ex-MLA Sibgatullah Ansari had joined the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party in Lucknow, dropping clear indications of the power Ansari family distancing away from BSP ahead of 2022 polls in UP.
AIMIM warms up to Mukhtar Ansari, offers him party ticket
Meanwhile, in a related development on Friday, the AIMIM spokesperson Syed Asim Waqar, while maintaining that the party’s doors are open for Ansari, offered to field him by the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party in the Assembly polls.
"If Ansari wants to contest the election, the doors of AIMIM are open for him. We will give him a ticket and ensure his victory also," Waqar said. He asked other Muslims also not to "purchase tickets" from any other political party as they will ensure their defeat even after taking money from them.
"Votes of their communities (other parties) do not transfer to Muslims. I ask Muslims who want to contest elections to come and join AIMIM. The party will give them tickets," he said.
Just three days back, another jailed gangster and ex-UP MLA and MP Atiq Ahmad and wife had joined the AIMIM in presence of the party’s chief Asaduddin Owaisi. While Ahmad's wife Shaista Praveen joined the AIMIM at a press conference, he joined the new party in absentia.