BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari
Highlights
- OP Rajbhar had earlier met Mukhtar Ansari, a sitting MLA from Mau, at the Banda jail
- Rajbhar after meeting Mukhtar had said that SP-SBSP alliance will support his candidature from Mau
- Mukhtar Ansari, representing the Mau seat since 1996, is accused in several criminal cases in UP
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari may contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls from Mau Assembly seat on Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) ticket, sources told India TV. The SBSP is led by Om Prakash Rajbhar. The party is a constituent of Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party-led alliance.
Sources said that both -- Mukhtar and his son Abbas will file their nomination papers from Mau seat. The SBSP will then decide who will enter the poll fray.
Mukhtar Ansari, a sitting MLA from Mau, had won in the 2017 polls from here on a BSP ticket. Mukhtar, representing the seat since 1996, is currently lodged at Banda jail. He was lodged in Punjab's Rupnagar jail in an extortion case in January 2019 and transferred to Banda in April 2021 after the Supreme Court directed his transfer to the UP jail to face trials.
Notably, Rajbhar had earlier said that the SP-SBSP alliance will support Mukhtar Ansari. He had even met Mukhtar in Banda jail. "The SP and the SBSP alliance will support him (Mukhtar) in the assembly polls," Rajbhar had told PTI.
The SBSP, which had contested the 2017 assembly elections in alliance with the BJP, has four MLAs in the outgoing Assembly. He was also made a Cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government but due to differences with the chief minister, he quit the government and sided with the SP.
Mukhtar had first won polls from Mau in 1996 on a BSP ticket. He retained the seat in 2002 and 2007 polls as an Independent candidate. He floated Quami Ekta Dal in 2010 and won polls in 2012. Before the 2017 polls, he merged the party with Mayawati's BSP.
Last year, BSP supremo Mayawati had said that her party will not field 'bahubali' or mafia candidates in the polls and announced that Mukhtar Ansari will not be given a party ticket from Mau again.
According to the UP government data, more than 30 FIRs and more than 14 criminal trials including heinous crimes of murder and under the Gangster Act are pending against Mukhtar Ansari in various MP/MLA courts.
Mau will go to polls in the seventh and last phase on March 7. The result will be declared on March 10.
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