Behind Mau switch for Mukhtar’s son, SP bid to ‘avoid criminal tag’

In their election campaigns, top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have relentlessly targeted the SP for “giving tickets to criminals” – an allegation denied by SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who, in turn, has levelled a similar counter-allegation at the BJP.

Ansari, who has won the Mau seat five times since 1996, was set to contest the election. His lawyer Daroga Singh said last Friday that the MPs/MLAs special court, hearing a plea filed by Ansari, gave him permission to file nomination papers from jail.

Ansari is a history-sheeter in Mohammadabad police station of Ghazipur district with 38 cases filed against him in various police stations in a number of districts, including Lucknow, Ghazipur and Mau. He has been acquitted in most of these cases though.

According to the UP police, 96 members of “Ansari’s gang” have been arrested and 85 of them booked under the Gangsters Act so far. The arms licences of 72 of his associates have been cancelled or suspended, while police have seized, attached, freed or demolished properties worth Rs 192 crore linked to Ansari and his associates.

Ansari’s lawyer said Tuesday that the decision to field Abbas was taken as his father wanted to “transfer his legacy to the son”.

A senior SP leader, however, said that Akhilesh has made up his mind not to field any of the “controversial figures in the upcoming polls to get rid of the tag of being a party for gangsters”.

“It has been Akhilesh ji’s resolve not to fall in the trap laid out by the BJP. If Mukhtar, Atiq Ahmed and Imran Masood had contested, it would have helped the BJP because even if the SP won their seats, it would have resulted in a bigger loss for the party by impacting other seats,” said the leader, adding that “The party has promised these leaders that they will be taken care of after the polls once the SP forms government.”

Abbas filed nomination Monday on a ticket of the SBSP led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is considered close to Ansari. SP sources say that although Rajbhar tried to persuade Akhilesh to field Ansari, the SP chief did not agree in order to avoid “polarisation of Hindu votes”.

Mau has a sizeable number of Muslim and Rajbhar voters, and with Abbas being the only Muslim candidate in the fray, SP leaders are hopeful of a “big victory” here. The BSP has fielded its UP unit chief Bheem Rajbhar from Mau, while the BJP has given ticket to a first-timer Ashok Singh.