Almost every BSP candidate wants him to come and address a public meeting to woo the Muslim voters. And 62-year-old Afzal Ansari, the former MP and the brother of jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari, is obliging most of them. Addressing about six public meetings a day, Ansari is visiting most of the assembly segments in eastern UP and Terai. He is introduced as “shoshiton aur apmaniton ke neta”, the leader of those exploited and insulted, at these meetings. WATCH VIDEO | Assembly Elections 2017: How Has UP Voted In The Past Explained He targets Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP but keeps his strongest words for Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who rejected the idea of merging his Quami Ekta Dal, which had been pushed by Mulayam and Shivpal Yadav. “I went to meet him and asked him why he had denied tickets to my brothers. I told him: ‘You are a child. I used to sit on the chair and you used to stand. We had helped him when his father had sought it.’ He answered that he wanted to do the politics of ideals and will be able to answer my question after March 11(the day of counting of votes). I said to him: ‘You will not be in a position to talk then. You are filled with arrogance’,” he said at Pratapgarh. “His supporters started to shout ‘Jai Jai Akhilesh’ in front of me. Tab maine uske gate pe kasam khayi ki iska ghamand zarur todunga bhale hi mujhe iske liye Ghazipur se Ghaziabad tak kyon na jana pade. Main bhi jaunga apne buzurgon yuvaon ke beech, usne sirf mera nahi puri quam ka apman kiya hai (I took an oath at his gate that I will destroy his arrogance, even if I had to move from Ghazipur to Ghaziabad. I will also go among our youths and elders. He has not insulted not just me, but the whole community),” he said. “Main aapke saamne daaman failata hun, agar aap is pratyashi ko vote denge toh ye samajhna ki vote mujhe de diya. (I beg before you to give your votes to the BSP candidate. It will be as if you have voted for me),” he said before ending his speech. Afzal is easily the best orator among the BSP’s Muslim leaders, fluent in Urdu and Hindi as well as the Bhojpuri. His popularity among Muslims, especially the backward Muslims, is what the party candidates want to woo. “He has been in great demand among the candidates. Though he visited Gonda and Bahraich, there still were demands from candidates in Balrampur for his rallies,” said a party coordinator in Devipatan division. The Ansari family, including Afzal and his brothers Mukhtar and Sibgatulla, joined the BSP on January 26. Mayawati did not just make Mukhtar, Sibgatulla and Mukhtar’s son Abbas party candidates from Mau, Mohammadabad and Ghosi seats, respectively, she made Afzal a star campaigner too. He has addressed rallies in Gonda, Bahraich, Lucknow, Barabanki, Pratapgarh, Deoria, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ghazipur and Gorakhpur districts. In the coming days, as the campaign shifts to Varanasi and Azamgarh divisions for the last two phases of polling, he will address public meetings in Chandauli, Varanasi, Bhadohi and Mau, where his family is considered to hold sway over sections of Muslims. “Akhilesh is going to face the worst on March 11. His arrogance will be destroyed then. The way Bahadur Shah Zafar became the last Mughal emperor, Akhilesh will be the last ruler from Saifai. Mulayam Singh became a leader when he won hearts. He gave respect to Muslims. Akhilesh toh ghamand se bhara hai. Isne to Muslimon ka apman kiya hai. Ye aadmi nahi bolta hai, iska takabbur, iska ghamand bolta hai (Akhilesh is filled with arrogance. He has insulted Muslims. It’s not him who speaks but his arrogance),” he told The Indian Express. At his rallies, he talks about the failures of SP government, and more specifically Akhilesh, in fulfilling 18 promises made in the party’s 2012 manifesto, like providing reservation to Muslim in proportion to their population and implementation of the recommendations of Sachar Committee and Ranganath Mishra Commission’s reports. Afzal talks about his grand father, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, president of Indian National Congress, and involvement of his forefathers in the freedom struggle. He talks of support given by Muslim clerics to Mayawati, trying to convince his audience that BSP is the only party which can be the real himayati (backer) of the community. “Modi is bent on enforcing the agenda of RSS in this country. He is being stopped by only one thing: the complicated structure of law. There are two parts of Parliament. While Modi has got majority in Lok Sabha, he still does not have numbers in Rajya Sabha where opposition parties stop his laws. Wo bechain hai ki kaise Rajya Sabha me bahumat aaye. He tried in Bengal. He invested all in Bihar but failed. Now his only hope is UP,” he said at a rally in Mohammadabad Gohna seat of Mau district. While Mukhtar remains in jail, many BSP candidates in Varanasi and Azamgarh divisions have started using his photos on their leaflets and banners to reach out to Muslims. However, the Ansari family has shared among themselves responsibilities of campaign. While Sibgatulla and his son Mannu are managing their campaign in Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur district, Mukhtar’s younger son, Umar bin Mukhtar manages the campaign of his father in Mau. Another son of Sibgatulla, Salman, is campaigning for BSP on six other seats of Ghazipur district. Afzal says he is not yet involved in the campaign in the three seats his family members are contesting. But he says he will remain in these seats from March 1 to March 6. Verdict on plea against Mukhtar’s parole likely today The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce on Monday its decision on the Election Commission’s plea for cancelling UP MLA Mukhtar Ansari’s custody parole granted by a trial court for canvassing in the state Assembly polls. He is facing trial in the 2005 murder case of a BJP MLA.
