Mayawati won’t field mafia candidates, no ticket to Mukhtar Ansari

TIL Desk/National/Lucknow/ The Bahujan Samaj Party will make efforts to not field ‘bahubali’ (strongmen) or mafia candidates in next year’s Uttar Pradesh polls, party supremo Mayawati said Friday, announcing that jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari will not be given a party ticket from Mau again.

She said BSP state president Bhim Rajbhar will contest from Mau seat, currently represented by Mukhtar Ansari who is lodged in a jail in Banda, with several criminal cases pending against him.Mayawati’s announcement comes days after Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Sigbatullah Ansari joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.

‘In upcoming assembly polls, the BSP’s effort will be to not field ‘bahubali’ and mafia elements. So, the name of Bhim Rajbhar, the BSP UP president, has been finalised from the Mau assembly seat in place of Mukhtar Ansari,’ she said in a tweet in Hindi.