Ansari now untouchable for BSP; SP sceptical too

Strict action taken by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh against Mukhtar Ansari seems to be pushing the Bahujan Samaj Party to distance itself from its Mau MLA, who is in jail over criminal charges.
Ansari, a five-time MLA, is also unlikely to get any open support from the Samajwadi Party ahead of the assembly elections early next year, though it has recently welcomed one of his brothers to the party.

On Friday, BSP supremo Mayawati announced that the party would not field any person with a criminal background in the assembly elections. She also said Bhim Rajbhar, the party’s UP president, would replace Ansari as its candidate in Mau.

Ansari had become an MLA for the first time in 1996, on a BSP ticket.

“Party in-charges should be careful in selecting candidates so that when we form our government, we shouldn’t hesitate in taking action against such elements,” Mayawati said in tweet.

In the last four years, the Yogi Adityanath government in UP has taken strict action against Ansari and several illegal properties belonging to his family have been demolished by the authorities.

BJP leaders of the state own it as a badge of honour. “Mukhtar Ansari was considered a winning guarantee by the BSP and SP. Now because the UP government has taken strict action and captured his illegal wealth, these parties are distancing themselves from him,” Rakesh Tripathi, BJP’s spokesperson in UP, told ET. “The credit goes to the strong Yogi Adityanath government for action against noted criminals.”

For the BJP, action against Ansari and other like him has become an example of good governance. This is one of the factors that makes both the BSP and SP uncomfortable about Ansari.

Recently, Ansari’s elder brother and former MLA Sibgatullah Ansari joined the SP. Sources told ET that this had irked Mayawati and it could be the reason behind the BSP denying a ticket to Mukhtar Ansari. Afzal Ansari, another of Ansari’s elder brothers, is the BSP MP from Ghazipur.

With Sibgatullah Ansari joining the SP, some supporters of the Ansari brothers might shift towards that party. However, an open association with Mukhtar Ansari is unlikely to be possible for the SP.

In 2016, when the Qaumi Ekta Dal of the Ansari brothers sought to merge with the SP, Akhilesh Yadav, the current SP chief, had opposed it and stopped the merger. It was then that the Ansaris moved towards the BSP.

“People who have joined the Samajwadi Party have no criminal cases and entire families cannot be targeted for one person's credentials,” SP spokesperson Udaiveer Singh told ET, defending Sibgatullah Ansari's induction into the party. “Also, if the BJP questions parties on inducting people with criminal cases, then what about the CM who has had many cases lodged against himself.”

The Ansari brothers have influence over Muslim votes in the Purvanchal region, especially in Varanasi, Mau, Ghazipur, Ghosi and nearby areas. A tacit understanding might work out going forward between the SP and Mukhtar Ansari where both would maintain silence over each other till the elections, SP sources suggested.