AIMIM offers party ticket to Mukhtar Ansari

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday offered jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari the party ticket from Mau in eastern Uttar Pradesh for the 2022 state assembly election, hours after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati announced that the BSP will not renominate Ansari, the sitting MLA from Mau.

AIMIM’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Shaukat Ali also said the party was ready to welcome jailed Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan as well his family members into the party fold. Khan represents Rampur in the Lok Sabha.

Khan’s supporters were in contact with the AIMIM leadership, he said. He alleged the BSP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) used Muslim leaders and voters for political gains and later dumped them.

AIMIM national spokesperson Syed Asim Waqar said the party’s doors were open for Mukhtar Ansari.

“If Ansari wants to contest the election, the doors of AIMIM are open for him. We will give him a ticket and ensure his victory also,” he said to the news agency PTI.

Mukhtar Ansari, facing trial in criminal cases, is in jail but has not been convicted by court yet. According to the Election Commission of India rules, he can contest elections, AIMIM state president Shaukat Ali added.

The BSP used Mukhtar Ansari’s clout to make inroads among Muslim voters and gave the party ticket to him as well as his family members in the 2017 assembly election and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls even though he was facing charges in criminal cases, the AIMIM state president said.

Now when the BSP’s agenda has been served Mayawati is saying that Mukhtar is a mafia, he said.

The same was true of former Lok Sabha MP Atiq Ahmed, who joined the AIMIM on Tuesday, Ali said. Ahmed won the 2004 Lok Sabha election as an SP candidate from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh. The SP used his influence over the Muslim community to widen its support base in the Prayagraj region and later showed him the door, Shaukat Ali said.

Muslims should realise the duplicity in the words and actions of the SP and BSP leaders, he stated, adding that Ahmed and his wife had joined the AIMIM.

Ali also said BSP MP from Ghosi Atul Rai was charged under section 376 IPC (rape) and the allegedly victim committed self-immolation but Rai continues to be a BSP member.

The AIMIM will expose both the parties (the SP and the BSP) by organising statewide meetings, he said.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi will address public meetings in Sambhal on September 22, Prayagraj on September 25, Kanpur on September 26 and Bahraich on September 30, he said.

Ali also said Azam Khan was lodged in jail for over one year but the Samajwadi Party remained a mute spectator to the victimization of the senior leader.

The SP had not launched an agitation against the BJP government over the harassment of Khan’s family members, he said, adding that the people were agitated over the issue.

The AIMIM would launch a statewide movement, demanding Khan’s release once he joined the party, he said.

“We will also launch a movement against the BJP government’s plan to grab the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University established at Rampur in 2005,” he said.