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BJP, SP in a war of words over contrasting perceptions on Mukhtar
Akhilesh visited Mukhtar Ansari’s ancestral house in Mohammadabad town of Ghazipur district on Sunday afternoon and spent over an hour there.
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Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s visit to gangster-and-politician Mukhtar Ansari home offering his condolences to the family has triggered a war of words between the ruling BJP and the SP less than a fortnight ahead of the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls that begin on April 19.
Akhilesh visited Mukhtar Ansari’s ancestral house in Mohammadabad town of Ghazipur district on Sunday afternoon and spent over an hour there. He condoled the death of Mukhtar and interacted with the family members.
Before leaving Mukhtar’s house, Akhilesh made sharp comments on Mukhtar vis-a-vis the BJP government in the state.
Akhilesh’s visit and the comments are being read by the political observers as an attempt to attract Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh, which has nearly two dozen Muslim dominated Lok Sabha constituencies, including Ghazipur, Mau, Rampur, Azamgarh, among others.
Attacking the BJP government over Mukhtar’s death, Akhilesh Yadav: “Would anyone believe that the death (Mukhtar’s) was natural? Is not there a public feeling that the government was hiding something? Does the government have a reply over what happened to him (Mukhtar) in jail?”
He further said, “I came to share the pain of a family (of Mukhtar). I met all the members of the family.
“Imagine the person who had been in jail for so many years, still the people had been making him win (the elections). This means that the person and his family had supported the people in their troubles and sorrows. Today, there are many stories circulating in the media and social media as to how this family had worked among the public and been with them in their troubles,” the SP chief said.
Akhilesh also said: “Justice will be done if there is a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.”
With the other family members, Mukhtar’s brother Afzal Ansari was present and interacted with Akhilesh. Afzal is the sitting BSP MP from Ghazipur seat and the SP candidate for the same seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Akhilesh visit and comments triggered a sharp attack by Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya during his visit to Azamgarh, a Muslim-dominated constituency which the BJP won in the 2022 Lok Sabha bypoll.
Talking to reporters, Maurya said: “Who am I to tell him where should he go or not? But I am sure wherever the SP goes, the BJP will win. As for Mukhtar Ansari, this is SP’s disease. The BJP is completely healthy. We think Mukhtar Ansari was a mafia. It is up to the SP what they think about him.”
On April 1, Samajwadi Party’s former Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav (currently the SP Azamgarh candidate) and Rajya Sabha MP Balram Yadav visited Mukhtar’s family.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SP- BSP alliance had bagged Shravasti, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Lalganj and Ghosi seats in east UP, working on the Muslim-OBC-Dalit formula. In the 2022 assembly elections, the SP won a majority of the seats in Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Ambedkar Nagar districts.
Mukhtar Ansari enjoyed a hold over Muslim votes in Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh and Varanasi districts. Muslims account for 20% of the voters in the Lok Sabha seats in these districts.
Though Mukhtar is dead, the influence of his family over Muslim voters in the region is likely to continue. Mukhtar’s brother Afzal Ansari, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the BSP ticket, is contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on the Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari won the Mau seat on the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party ticket in the 2022 assembly election. Mukhtar’s nephew Suhaib Ansari is the SP MLA from Mohammadabad.
