New Delhi: Slain gangster-cum-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s brother and sitting Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari is leading in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur by over 60,000 votes. This time, Ansari has been given a ticket by the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat, once a stronghold of the Communists, has been in focus as this is its first election in the absence of Mukhtar, a mafia-turned-politician who enjoyed enormous political and social influence in the region. Mukhtar died on 28 March in Banda prison, allegedly by slow poisoning.
Afzal Ansari was disqualified as an MP after being convicted in a case, but later got relief from the Supreme Court and his membership of Parliament was reinstated.
In 2019, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha, who was then the sitting MP and Union minister, lost the election to Ansari. BJP’s losing candidate, Parasnath Rai, is a close aide of Sinha.
Afzal won his first Vidhan Sabha election from Mohammadabad, an assembly constituency in Ghazipur in 1985 on a Communist Party of India ticket — a seat he would win consistently for five elections from 1985 to 2002. In 2004, he won his first Lok Sabha election against BJP’s Sinha.
Meanwhile, through the 1990s, Mukhtar Ansari’s prominence in the constituency grew as he became a dreaded criminal in the region. In 1991, he was accused of killing Awadhesh Rai (elder brother of now UP Congress chief Ajay Rai) in a gang rivalry. This was just the first of a spate of murders Mukhtar was accused of.
The murders, however, did not stop Mukhtar from becoming a successful politician himself. In 1996, he won his first election from Mau — a seat he held for five consecutive terms until 2022. This even though he remained behind bars from 2005 till his death.
But for the people of Ghazipur and Mau, he was not just a dreaded mafia. He was also considered the biggest danvir (philanthropist), who distributed the wealth he amassed from his myriad businesses among the poor of the region.
Several people of Ghazipur across castes and religions said Mukhtar was a parallel state in the region. The poor would often go to the Ansari household for loans for weddings and health crises, to resolve local and family disputes, or to even register a police case, which Mukhtar would get done swiftly, they said.
The election in Ghazipur was held this time in the context of the vacuum caused by Mukhtar’s death and the increased isolation of the Ansari family under the seven years of BJP rule in the state.
Already prepared to go behind bars, Afzal has introduced his daughter, Nusrat Ansari as his successor in politics. The Ghazipur MP/MLA court sentenced Afzal to four years imprisonment in a Gangster Act case last year, which he challenged in the Allahabad High Court. In the absence of a favourable judgment, Afzal would have to relinquish his Lok Sabha seat if he wins.
Nusrat, a theatre artist and a graduate of Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, has already begun taking baby steps into politics. The campaign saw her visit temples, ashrams and even file her nomination papers from Ghazipur.
Also Read: Communism, anti-Bhumihar mobilisation, philanthropy — the cult of the Ansaris in Ghazipur