'No mafia will get party ticket': Mayawati 'disowns' gangster Mukhtar Ansari
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday said no mafia or 'bahubali' will get the party ticket. The BSP will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in next year's Uttar Pradesh polls, party supremo Mayawati said Friday, announcing that jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari will not be given a party ticket from Mau again.
BSP state president Bhim Rajbhar will contest from Mau seat, currently represented by Mukhtar Ansari who is lodged in a jail in Banda, with several criminal cases pending against him, Mayawati said.
"In upcoming assembly polls, the BSP's effort will be to not field 'bahubali' and mafia elements. So, the name of Bhim Rajbhar, the BSP UP president, has been finalised from the Mau assembly seat in place of Mukhtar Ansari," she said in a tweet in Hindi.
Mayawati's announcement comes days after Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sigbatullah Ansari joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.
BSP chief said the decision to not field criminal and mafia elements has been taken to meet people's expectation as she appealed to party leaders to keep this in mind while choosing candidates. "So that there is no problem in taking strict action against such elements once the government is formed."
Mayawati asserted that she wanted to ensure rule of law and would not entertain those who violated the law.
She added, "Alongside ensuring 'a rule of law, by law', the BSP's resolve is to also change Uttar Pradesh’s image now."
She said the BSP's should be known as the government that follows the philosophy of 'Sarvajan Hitay and Sarvajan Sukhay' (universal good).
BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari, who has a vast criminal record has been denied ticket for the Uttar Pradesh election 2022. Mukhtar Ansari's ouster from the BSP was a foregone conclusion after his brother Sigbatullah Ansari joined Samajwadi Party last month.
His joining the Samajwadi Party was a clear indication that Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari, who is a BSP MP from Ghazipur, would also join SP, sooner than later.
In 2017, the BSP had given a ticket to Mukhtar Ansari and his son Abbas Ansari who could not win the election. In 2019, Afzal Ansari was the BSP candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.
The former gangster-turned-politician is currently lodged in Uttar Pradesh's Banda jail. Ansari, the legislator from Mau in eastern Uttar Pradesh, is facing 52 cases in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, and 15 of them are in the trial stage.
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