Mayawati Drops Jailed Mukhtar Ansari as Candidate for 2022 Polls
Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday dropped jailed party MLA Mukhtar Ansari as a candidate for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, saying the BSP will not field strongmen and mafia in the 2022 polls.
She replaced the gangster-turned-politician with party’s UP chief, Bhim Rajbhar, from Mau.
In a series of tweets, Mayawati said on Friday morning, “The BSP’s efforts in the upcoming UP assembly general election will be to ensure that no strongmen or mafia etc contest from the party. In view of this, the name of Bhim Rajbhar, BSP State President of UP has been finalised, instead of Mukhtar Ansari from Mau Vidhan Sabha seat of Azamgarh Mandal.”
“I appeal to the party in-charge to take special care while selecting the party candidates so that if the government is formed, strict action will be taken against such elements. There is no problem in taking action,” she added.
Sources told news18 that the move is BSP chief’s bid to project a clean image of the party and also get in a position to target other parties who decide to field tainted candidates.
3. बीएसपी का संकल्प ’कानून द्वारा कानून का राज’ के साथ ही यूपी की तस्वीर को भी अब बदल देने का है ताकि प्रदेश व देश ही नहीं बल्कि बच्चा-बच्चा कहे कि सरकार हो तो बहनजी की ’सर्वजन हिताय व सर्वजन सुखाय’ जैसी तथा बीएसपी जो कहती है वह करके भी दिखाती है यही पार्टी की सही पहचान भी है।— Mayawati (@Mayawati) September 10, 2021
3. बीएसपी का संकल्प ’कानून द्वारा कानून का राज’ के साथ ही यूपी की तस्वीर को भी अब बदल देने का है ताकि प्रदेश व देश ही नहीं बल्कि बच्चा-बच्चा कहे कि सरकार हो तो बहनजी की ’सर्वजन हिताय व सर्वजन सुखाय’ जैसी तथा बीएसपी जो कहती है वह करके भी दिखाती है यही पार्टी की सही पहचान भी है।— Mayawati (@Mayawati) September 10, 2021
“BSP’s resolve is to change the picture of UP along with ‘rule of law by law’ so that not only the state and the country, but every child says that if there is Behen Ji’s government which actually works for ‘Sarvajan Hitay and Sarvajan Sukhay’, which is also the true identity of the party,” said the former CM of the state in her tweet.
Recently, Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Sibgatullah Ansari, a two-time MLA, had joined the Samajwadi Party and it was speculated that Ansari and others from his family will follow suit. The Ansari brothers had tried to join SP earlier as well before the 2017 UP Assembly polls but after objection from Akhilesh Yadav they joined the BSP.
Reacting to the BSP’s decision, Samajwadi Party Spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said, “All the political parties have their own political strategies and accordingly they decide if they want to induct a person or not. People of UP have made up their minds that they will give their blessings to SP in 2022 polls and will uproot the BJP from the state.”
The BJP, in response, attacked both the SP and BSP on the issue of fielding mafias in elections. “Be it the SP or BSP, both know how to take advantage of the mafias. They induct any person in their party for political gains, be it Mukhtar Ansari’s family or Ateeq Ahmad’s family…they keep switching between SP and BSP. People have now understood how goons and mafias are getting posts in these parties,” said Anand Dubey, BJP spokesperson.
