Overlooked by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in his list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari now looks set to jump ship and join Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Reports suggest that talks between the two sides have reached the final stages and the BSP could induct Ansari along with his son and brother into the party tomorrow.
Sources said that Mayawati has agreed to give them three assembly seats, Ghosi, Mau and Mohammadabad to contest the upcoming Assembly polls.
To accommodate Mukhtar, his son Abbas Ansari and elder brother Sibagatullah Ansari, Mayawati will have to withdraw three BSP candidates already announced for these seats in Eastern part the state.
Mukhtar is a sitting MLA from Mau, but Akhilesh chose to hand a ticket to Altaf Ansari who had unsuccessfully contested the previous polls against him.
Interestingly, Sibagatullah Ansari, who had signed a petition in favour of declaring Akhilesh as the SP supremo, was also denied an SP ticket. The SP has given his seat -- Mohammadabad -- to its ally Congress.
Last year, the Samajwadi Party had announced that Ansari's party, Quami Ekta Dal (QED), was merging with it based on a deal made by Shivpal Yadav. However, Akhilesh’s strong opposition to the merger stoked a bitter tussle for power in the ruling party between nephew and uncle.
Mukhtar won his first Assembly election in 1996 as a candidate of the BSP, and the next two (2002 and 2007) as an independent. In 2007, he joined BSP against and unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election.
After BSP expelled him in 2010 for criminal activities, he formed his own party Quami Ekta Dal (QED) with his brothers. He won from the Mau seat as a QED candidate in 2012 Assembly polls.
