Abbas Ansari, son of dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari, got a ticket of the SBSP led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is considered close to Ansari
Elections in India periodically see a “generation shift”. It’s not always a natural progression. More often than not, it’s circumstantial, a product of power play or the pressure of polity.
Mau constituency in Uttar Pradesh votes on 7 March. It was always a star constituency because of its winning candidate and local godfather, Jailed MLA and dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari. He won’t be contesting this time around though. Mau is a small district, adjacent to Azamgarh, known for its textile and weavers.
Mukhtar Ansari has a severely tainted image and faced several criminal charges. Interestingly, he has represented the Mau Sadar constituency as MLA five times since 1996. In 2017, he contested as a BSP candidate. Currently lodged in Banda jail in UP, Ansari is Mau’s sitting MLA.
So, Mau is more or less his own fiefdom. People would be voting for him either out of fear or adoration or both. This time the “generation shift” has happened with the political baton being passed onto his 30-year-old son Abbas Ansari.
Abbas is very unlike his father. He does have a twirled moustache, just like his father, but that is where the similarity ends. Abbas has a squeaky clean image with no serious criminal charges against him. And, above all, he is an avid sportsperson.
Abbas, who has studied business management, was a member of the Indian shooting team and was among the top 10 skeet shooters. He made his name in 2 World Cups — Germany and Finland. He won his first national championship in 2011 in the shotgun category. But missed out a berth in the Rio Olympics after he met with an accident in 2014.
Abbas was one of the few shooters who excelled in all three categories — big bore skeet, rifle and pistol.
So, why was the baton passed on? There is an ongoing tussle between the Ansari family, primarily involving Mukhtar Ansari and the state administration. Local election watchers say Mukhtar had blamed the state government for using tactics of intimidation to deter him from contesting. Yet, the senior Ansari felt this was the right time to hand over the “virasat” or heritage to his son.
But let’s admit even if Abbas wins, the shadow of his big daddy would always loom large over Mau. Generation change is one thing, genuine change is another.
What needs to be remembered is Mukhtar Ansari is not just any other MLA. He has been in the cross-hairs of the Yogi government for the last 5 years. His name has figured repeatedly during this poll campaign by the BJP. References have been made how Mukhtar prospered with the blessings of Mulayam Singh Yadav and later Mayawati. BJP says this is precisely why its state government has been so effective in its campaign to weed out “goonda raj” from the state.
Abbas Ansari represents a paradigm shift. There are political machinations behind his elevation. He is the official candidate of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an ally of the Samajwadi Party. When reporters asked him why his father did not file his nomination, Abbas said, “You should ask the government and administration about this.”
The SBSP wields decent clout among the Rajbhars, a community found in sizeable numbers in the district and the adjoining region.
Abbas got a ticket of the SBSP led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is considered close to Ansari. Samajwadi Party watchers say although Rajbhar tried to persuade Akhilesh Yadav to field Ansari, the SP chief said no. Rationale was 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.
What Akhilesh Yadav has cleverly done is keep his distance from the Ansari family, openly patronised by his father Mulayam earlier. Om Prakash Rajbhar does the heavy lifting with the blessing of the SP in Mau. No mud sticks to the SP.
The BJP has kept up the heavy hitting. It says it has demolished or seized the property worth over Rs 1,500 crore of alleged mafia dons and criminals as part of its drive against organised crime. And action against the Ansari family tops their priority list. The SP and the Ansari family have accused the BJP government of misusing authority and targeting opponents with bulldozers and fake cases.
In 2021, the JUP police said that 244 members linked to Mukhtar Ansari, whom they have designated as a ‘gangster’, were arrested and property or land worth Rs 194 crore was seized, demolished or freed from “illegal occupation” of the “Mukhtar Ansari gang.”
The police also arrested 158 people linked to him and lodged 102 cases and seized or cancelled 122 weapon licences. While 110 of them were booked under the Gangsters Act, 30 were booked under the Goondas Act, six under the NSA and 37 were added to the history-sheeter list.
After spending more than two years in a Punjab prison, Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh. One of the cases against Mukhtar Ansari is the murder of Krishna Nand Rai, former Uttar Pradesh MLA who was killed in 2005. Rai’s wife Alka Rai is a BJP leader and an MLA in Uttar Pradesh.
Alka Rai wrote a letter to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleging that her party’s government in Punjab was helping Mukhtar Ansari evade court appearances.
Ansari was booked for extortion and criminal intimidation on a complaint by a real estate firm’s chief executive officer. The complainant claimed he received a call where the caller identified himself as “some Ansari from UP” on 9 January 2019 and demanded an extortion amount of Rs 10 crore in exchange for safety.
Mukhtar Ansari was then lodged in a Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh. The Punjab Police landed in Banda with a production warrant seeking to take Mukhtar Ansari into custody. The transfer of custody happened on 22 January 2019. He was brought to Mohali and subsequently sent to Ropar jail.
Punjab’s home department had asked the UP government to take Ansari’s custody by 8 April, following the 26 March Supreme Court order that had set a two-week deadline.
The Supreme Court had noted that Ansari was allegedly involved in cases of murder, attempt to murder, cheating and conspiracy, apart from offences under the Gangsters Act. It said his custody was “being denied to the UP Police on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues.”
Cut to the present. Abbas Ansari has remained very tight-lipped and cautious. Yet, he tossed an open challenge to the Chief Minister. “I am waiting for the day when Yogi Ji gathers some courage to file a nomination from Mau constituency.” The BJP might love to have a go at Mau. There is a big thrill when a fiefdom is brought down.
The author is CEO of nnis. Views expressed are personal.
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