Team News Riveting
Lucknow, September 10
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said her party would try not to field “bahubali (strongmen)” or mafia candidates in the ensuing Uttar Pradesh polls.
The state would go to the polls early next year. The announcement of BSP supremo had put the political fate of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari under the scanner. He was likely to be denied party ticket from Mau again. The gangster has been a lawmaker from the constituency for the last five terms.
Mayawati said BSP state president Bhim Rajbhar would contest from Mau seat, currently represented by Mukhtar Ansari who is lodged in a jail in Banda, with several criminal cases pending against him. The announcement comes days after Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Sigbatullah Ansari joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.
“In upcoming Assembly polls, the BSP’s effort will be not to 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.
Another brother of Mukhtar’s, Afzal Ansari, is a BSP MP who represents Ghazipur seat. He had defeated the BJP’s Manoj Sinha, who is now the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
The announcement of Mayawati will put the other political parties in Uttar Pradesh in a fix. For, they will have to take a call on fielding candidates having criminal records.
In the last assembly elections held in 2017, 143 MLAs in the house of 404 in Uttar Pradesh had criminal records. Of them, 114 were from the BJP, 14 from the SP, 5 from BSP and 1 from Congress.
