Mukhtar Ansari: News

Mukhtar Ansari is a gangster-turned-politician of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and a five-term member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He is the grandson of Indian National Congress (INC) leader Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari and nephew of former Vice-President Hamid Ansari. He was a crime leader active in the Mau-Azamgarh-Ghazipur-Chandauli belt in Eastern UP. His gang competed with other organized crime cartels to secure government contracts and tenders. Ansari joined BSP in the mid-1990s and became a first-time MLA in UP Assembly from Mau constituency. Since then, he has represented Mau five times in the Assembly. He unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi in 2009 and 2014, losing each time to BJP candidates. Ansari has more than 40 criminal cases against his name. He is accused of the murders of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, Kapil Dev Singh, contractor Ajay Prakash Singh, and Ram Singh Maurya, among others. Since 2006, he has been in prison on various charges. Since assuming power in 2017, the Yogi Adityanath administration has tightened the noose around Ansari’s neck in its bid to tackle organized crime in UP.