For UP BJP, life term to Atiq Ahmed is a shot in the arm before the 2024 polls

Gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmed brought back to Sabarmati Central prison on Wednesday night. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

“Former MP Atiq Ahmed and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari are known criminals in UP, but both have only been convicted in any case during BJP rule. The BJP will highlight this as a big achievement in future polls, because law and order is a perennial electoral issue in UP. Ahmed and Ansari will be symbols of our crackdown on mafiosi,” said a BJP leader.

He added, “Is anyone speaking about the other two people — Khan Shaulat Haneef and Dines Pasi — who have been convicted in kidnapping cases along with Atiq Ahmed? Everyone in the government and the party is only speaking about Atiq.”

“Action taken against Ansari, Ahmed and their associates, including the bulldozing of their illegal properties, is also impressing non-Muslim voters,” said the leader.

After the court pronounced the judgment, a government spokesperson said the Yogi Adityanath government has finally done what none could do in 43 years in UP. The spokesperson said, “The punishment is an example for the whole country, because during the SP’s rule, the same Atiq Ahmed roamed around freely, giving the impression to the common man that the road of law ended even before it could reach the gate of his dwelling. To the common man, the area where he breathed appeared to be forbidden for the police, court and justice.”

“But the Yogi Adityanath government has shown the mafioso his place. For the first time, the fear of government and law was visible on Atiq’s face. People of this country and the state have also seen that when there is good coordination between the prosecution and the police, and is coupled with effective argumentation in court, no matter how big a criminal one is, he can’t escape the legal dragnet,” said the spokesperson.

He also claimed that on hearing the verdict, Atiq had started to cry, and that this will give relief not only to Umesh Pal’s family, but to all those families that have suffered because of the gangster, and who have been waiting expectantly to see justice done for more than four decades.

After the judgment, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Mauya tweeted (in Hindi), “Sentence of life imprisonment awarded to Atiq Ahmed and others by a Prayagraj court is welcome. No criminal is above the law nor can he escape.”

BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary tweeted (in Hindi), “With the pen of good governance and ink of security, new Uttar Pradesh is building a new identity of development… CM Yogi Adityanathji maharaj ke netritva me mafias ko mitti me milane wala apna UP ab Utsav Pradesh ban gaya hai.”

This is not the first time the BJP has made sharp comments on Ahmed and Ansari. Even when both were in jail, senior BJP leaders regularly mentioned their names in their speeches and appealed to people to support the BJP to see them behind bars.

Addressing a public meeting during the BJP’s Jan Vishwas Yatra in Moradabad on December 30, 2021, ahead of the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the word nizam meant ‘shashan’ (administration), but for the SP, BSP and Congress, it meant Naseemuddin (Siddiqui), Imran Masood, Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari. “Do you want nizam of Naseemuddin, Imran, Azam and Mukhtar, or Yogi’s nizam of development?” Shah asked the crowd at a public meeting, adding that if people wanted Yogi’s nizam of development, they would have to ensure that the BJP won in all six seats in Moradabad.

“If land mafioso like Azam have to be kept inside jail, the BJP’s Adityanath government will have to be formed with a grand majority in the state once again,” Shah had said.

At a public meeting in the SP bastion of Karhal on February 17, 2022, Shah had said that (SP leader) Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari were inside jails in a BJP government, but they would come out to watch musical shows in Saifai Mahotsav if the SP were to return to power. “Now, you have to decide if they should be kept inside or released on bail,” he had asked, rhetorically.

On November 17, 2021, Maurya had predicted in Barabanki that even “Jinnah, Ansari and Ahmed” would not help the SP win the 2022 elections.

In the UP Assembly last month, when the Opposition SP raised the issue of the Umesh Pal murder, CM Adityanath had said his government would destroy “mafias and criminals” like Atiq Ahmed, the main accused in the 2005 case.

When asked about the past comments by BJP leaders on Ansari and Ahmed, state spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said law and order has been the most important issue in all elections in UP, as it suffered from a negative image due to the nexus between the governments and mafias, like Ahmed and Ansari. “But the BJP government has changed the image by taking strict action against the mafiosi, the first time in several decades. This is certainly a major achievement for the Yogi Adityanth government, and has strengthened his image as well,” Tripathi said.

He added that the BJP, which has been highlighting the wrongdoings of these dons in previous polls, will highlight the recent legal outcomes as achievements in future polls.

When asked why the BJP does not speak about other mafia dons, Tripathi said, “It does have any connection with any religion, faith and caste. People from all castes and religions were victims of the atrocities carried out by Ansari, Ahmed and Azam Khan.”