No tickets to ‘mafias’ and ‘bahubalis’; Mayawati denies ticket to jailed MLA Mukhtar Ansari

Bhim Rajbhar, state president of the party will instead be fielded from Ansari’s constituency- Mau, she said. She also appealed to party functionaries to refrain from giving tickets to people with similar backgrounds so that it is “easier” for the party to take action against them when it comes to power.

In 2007, as she had welcomed both Mukhtar and his brother- current BSP MP from Ghazipur, Afzal Ansari into the party, the BSP supremo had called Mukhtar “Robinhood” or a “messiah of the poor”. Later, the two brothers were expelled by the party in 2010 after a realisation that they were still engaged in criminal activities, following which the Ansari brothers formed their own party called the Quami Ekta Dal. In 2016, ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, Mukhtar, along with Afzal and Sibgatullah Ansari was once again welcomed into the party with Mayawati defending him saying charges against him had not been proved yet. Sibgatullah, former BSP MLA from Mohammadabad also recently joined the Samajwadi Party.

However, as the BJP repeatedly projects jailing of Mukhtar and causing financial dent of close to Rs 300 crore to him and his aides through police action that includes seizing of his properties, as a manifestation of the party’s strict stance of bringing mafias in the state to book, it may not bode well for the BSP to continue to harbour him.