Serial turncoat Afzal Ansari gets SP ticket now, set to contest after SC nod

The ‘brains’ behind gangster-brother Mukhtar Ansari of eastern UP, he is among the 11 new names announced by SP for the Lok Sabha polls

From left: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Afzal Ansari. (File Photo/Facebook)

Among the list of 11 candidates whose names the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced on Monday for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, amid seat-sharing talks with the Congress, one name is bound to raise eyebrows — Afzal Ansari. Not only is the 70-year-old a sitting Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) MP from Ghazipur, he was sentenced to four years in April 2023 in a Gangsters Act case, and is now out on bail, with his disqualification as an MP temporarily suspended by the Supreme Court.

Ansari, the brother of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been known to jump ship ahead of polls. The one constant through his terms as five-time MLA and two-time Lok Sabha MP has been Ghazipur district in eastern UP. All his Assembly terms have been from Mohammadabad, an Assembly segment under the Ballia Lok Sabha constituency of Ghazipur district. He progressed to the Lok Sabha from the Ghazipur constituency, and is seen to still enjoy widespread popularity.

Ansari was earlier a part of the CPI, moved to the SP in 1996, jumped to the BSP in 2009, and a year later, launched the Quami Ekta Dal (QED), which he merged with the BSP in 2019. He won the last Lok Sabha election on a BSP ticket, when the SP and BSP contested together. Monday’s announcement of Ansari as the SP nominee means his this stint with the BSP is also over.

Political circles have been abuzz in Uttar Pradesh since January that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav could accommodate Afzal Ansari in the coming Lok Sabha polls on an SP ticket. Akhilesh had even attended Ansari’s daughter’s wedding in Lucknow accompanied by senior party leaders on January 4.

Speaking to The Indian Express around the time, Ansari had said that while suspending his conviction in December, the Supreme Court had allowed him to contest elections. The order said: “The Appellant shall not be disqualified to contest future election(s) during the pendency of his criminal appeal before the High Court and, if he is elected, such election will be subject to outcome of the First Criminal Appeal.”

The April 2023 conviction by a special court in Ghazipur was Ansari’s first, though the long list of cases against brother Mukhtar has always shadowed his four-decade-long political career.

“Because of his knowledge of law and politics, Afzal is the ‘brains’ in the family, planning all its moves, be it regarding poll campaigns or fighting legal battles,” a Ghazipur local told The Indian Express last year, pointing to Ansari’s rising victory margin every election. It is largely courtesy Ansari’s work that Mukhtar has won three Assembly elections despite being in jail since 2005.

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The biggest case against the Ansari brothers was the November 29, 2005, murder of Krishnanand Rai in Ghazipur along with six associates. Afzal and Mukhtar were prime accused in the case, and given their influence, its trial was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court. In 2019, a special CBI court in Delhi acquitted the Ansaris and five others, with an appeal pending in the Delhi High Court.

As per UP Police’s record, there are a total of seven criminal cases against Afzal. The first, of violation of Model Code of Conduct, was lodged in 1996, and the last in Chandauli in 2014 on the same charge.

— with Lalmani Verma