Mukhtar Ansari

Mukhtar Ansari (born 30 June 1963) is a politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency a record five times. He was the prime accused in the BJP leader Krishnanand Rai murder case but later found not guilty in 2019.

Mukhtar Ansari
Mukhtar Ansari (R) with Mansoor Ansari (L)
Member of Legislative Assembly for Mau
Incumbent
Assumed office October 1996
Preceded by	Naseem
Constituency	Mau
Personal details
Born	30 June 1963 Yusufpur, Uttar Pradesh, India[1]
Political party	Bahujan Samaj Party
Other political affiliations	Quami Ekta Dal
Spouse(s)	Afshan Ansari ​ (m. 1989)​
Relations	Afzal Ansari(brother) Sibakatullah Ansari(brother) Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (grandfather)
Children	2, including Abbas Ansari
Residence	Tailor Tola, Yusufpur, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh
Alma mater	PG College Ghazipur[2]
Profession	Politician

Early life

Mukhtar Ansari is the grandson of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, an early president of the Indian National Congress.[3][4]

In the early 1970s, the government commissioned several development projects in the backward Poorvanchal area. This resulted in the rise of organised gangs that competed with each other to grab the contracts for these projects.[5] Mukhtar Ansari was originally a member of the Makhanu Singh gang. In the 1980s, this gang clashed with another gang led by Sahib Singh, over a plot of land in Saidpur, resulting in a series of violent incidents.[6] Brijesh Singh, a member of Sahib Singh's gang, later formed his own gang and took over Ghazipur's contract work mafia in the 1990s. Ansari's gang competed with him for the control of the ₹ 100 crore contract business, which spanned areas such as coal mining, railway construction, scrap disposal, public works, and liquor business. The gangs were also involved in running protection ("goonda tax") and extortion rackets, besides other criminal activities such as kidnapping.[6]

Early political career

By the early 1990s, Mukhtar Ansari was well known for his criminal activities, especially in the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur. He entered politics around 1995 through student union in Banaras Hindu University, became an MLA in 1996, and started challenging Brijesh Singh's dominance. The two became the main gang rivals in the Poorvanchal region.[5] In 2002, Singh ambushed Ansari's convoy. Three of Ansari's men were killed in the resulting shootout. Brijesh Singh was critically injured and presumed dead. Ansari became the undisputed gang leader in Poorvanchal. However, Brijesh Singh was later found to be alive, and the feud resumed. To counter Ansari's political influence, Singh supported the election campaign of the BJP leader Krishnanand Rai. Rai defeated Mukhtar Ansari's brother and five-time MLA Afzal Ansari from the Mohammadabad in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.[5] Mukhtar Ansari later claimed that Rai used his political office to award all the contracts to Brijesh singh's gang, and the two planned to eliminate him.[6]

Ansari used the Muslim votebank to ensure his victory during the elections in the Ghazipur-Mau area. His opponents tried to consolidate the Hindu votes, which is divided on the caste lines. The mix of crime, politics, and religion led to several instances of communal violence in the region. After one such riot, Mukhtar Ansari was arrested on the charge of inciting people towards violence.[6]

While Ansari was lodged in the jail, Krishnanand Rai was shot dead in public along with his six aides. The attackers fired over 400 bullets from six AK-47 rifles; 67 bullets were recovered from the seven bodies with the help of Ramashrey Giri.[5] Shashikant Rai, an important witness in the case, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 2006. He had identified Ansari and Bajrangi's shooters Angad Rai and Gora Rai as the two of the gunmen who attacked Rai's convoy. The police dismissed his death as a suicide.[7] Ansari's rival Brijesh Singh escaped from the Ghazipur-Mau area after Rai's murder. He was later arrested in 2008, in Orissa, and later entered politics as a member of the Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party.[8]

In 2008, Ansari was booked for ordering an attack on Dharmendra Singh, a witness in a murder case. However, later, the victim submitted an affidavit requesting the proceedings against Ansari to be dropped.[9] On 27 September 2017, Ansari was acquitted of murder.[10]

On 9 January 2018, Ansari and his wife suffered heart attacks while in a prison.[11]

Bahujan Samaj Party

Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2007. The party allowed them in, after they claimed that they had been falsely framed in criminal cases for fighting against the "feudal system", and promised to refrain from participating in any crimes. The BSP chief Mayawati portrayed Mukhtar Ansari as Robin Hood and called him "a messiah of the poor".[3][9] Ansari fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi on a BSP ticket, while still lodged in the jail.[12] He lost to BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi by a margin of 17,211 votes; he received 27.94% of the votes, compared to Joshi's 30.52%.[13][14]

Mukhtar Ansari and two other persons were charge-sheeted for the murder of Kapil Dev Singh in April 2009. The police also found that he had ordered the murder of a contractor Ajay Prakash Singh in August 2009.[9] In 2010, Ansari was booked for the murder of Ram Singh Maurya. Maurya was a witness to the murder of Mannat Singh, a local contractor allegedly killed by Ansari's gang in 2009.[15]

The two brothers were expelled by BSP in 2010 after the party realized that they were still involved in criminal activities. A raid in Ghazipur jail, where he was lodged, had revealed that Mukhtar was living a luxurious life: items like air coolers and cooking equipment were found from his cell. He was shifted to the Mathura prison soon after the raid.[9]

Quami Ekta Dal

After being expelled from BSP and being rejected by other political parties, the three Ansari brothers (Mukhtar, Afzal, and Sibkatillah) formed their own political party called the Quami Ekta Dal (QED), in 2010. Earlier, Mukhtar had launched an outfit called the Hindu Muslim Ekta Party, which was merged with QED.[16] In 2012, he was charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for being a member of an organised crime syndicate.[17]

In March 2014, Ansari announced that he will contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi and lost there with huge difference, besides contesting from Ghosi.[18] However, in April, he withdrew his candidature stating that he wanted to prevent division of "secular votes".[19]

Back in BSP

On 26 January 2017, Ansari rejoined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative elections. There was widespread speculation about the Ansari brothers joining Samajwadi party a couple of months ago. BSP chief Mayawati defended his entry into the party, stating that the criminal charges against Ansari had not been proven, and that the party gives people a chance to reform themselves.[20]

Eventually, Ansari merged his Quami Ekta Dal with BSP in 2017, and won the state elections as a BSP candidate from the Mau assembly seat. He defeated his nearest rival Mahendra Rajbhar of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (a BJP ally) by 6464 votes.[21]

Electoral performance

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election victories[22][23]

Year	Constituency	Vote %	Party
2017	Mau	24.19%	Bahujan Samaj Party[21]
2012	Mau	31.24%	Quami Ekta Dal
2007	Mau	46.78%	Independent
2002	Mau	46.06%	Independent
1996	Mau	45.85%	Bahujan Samaj Party

See also

• Shaukatullah Shah Ansari
• Faridul Haq Ansari

References

1. "Member Profile". official website of Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
2. https://myneta.info/uttarpradesh2017/candidate.php?candidate_id=4570
3. Patrick French (2011). India: A Portrait. Knopf Doubleday. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-307-59664-2.
4. "Robinhoods who scare world's most-wanted Dawood Ibrahim". Daily Bhaskar. 18 July 2012.
5. Alka Pande (9 December 2005). "A Slice Of Sicily". Outlook.
6. Aman Sethi (17–30 December 2005). "Rule of the outlaw". Frontline. 22 (26).
7. "Key witness's murder to weaken case against Ansari, Bajrangi". The Times of India. 23 March 2010.
8. "Little known party fields mafia don Brijesh Singh". The Times of India. 1 January 2012.
9. "Maya's party expels 'messiah of poor' Mukhtar Ansari, his brother". Indian Express. 17 April 2010.
10. https://scroll.in/latest/852134/uttar-pradesh-mla-mukhtar-ansari-acquitted-in-eight-year-old-murder-case
11. "Mukhtar Ansari, UP MLA suffers heart attack in jail". India Today. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
12. "BSP fields Mukhtar Ansari from Varanasi". The Hindu. 17 February 2009.
13. Iftikhar Gilani (19 March 2014). "Varanasi won't be a walk through for Narendra Modi". DNA.
14. "General Elections Results, Apr 2009: Varanasi". ZillR ElectionPlans.com. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
15. "Mukhtar Ansari booked in murder case". Indian Express. 21 March 2010.
16. "Ansaris launch own political outfit, will contest polls". The Indian Express. 9 August 2010.
17. "UP MLA Mukhtar Ansari charged under MCOCA". Zee News. 3 March 2012.
18. "Mukhtar to challenge Modi in Varanasi". The Times of India. 13 March 2014.
19. "Mukhtar Ansari opts out of contest against Narendra Modi in Varanasi". India Today. 10 April 2014.
20. "Mukhtar Ansari joins Mayawati's BSP". Financial Express. 26 January 2017.
21. "UP election 2017: Mukhtar Ansari wins on BSP ticket, son and brother lose". Hindustan Times. 12 March 2017.
22. "Mau Assembly Constituency Details". Party Analyst. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
23. "204 - Mau Assembly Constituency". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 19 March 2014.