Sanjay Srivastava, an advocate in the Poorvanchal region, says while BJP will use Ansari’s death to bolster its anti-Mafia claim, others will raise questions on his untimely death. His views:
Mukhtar enjoyed immense popularity in a particular community of eastern Uttar Pradesh along with a good number of followers and admirers amongst other (communities) as well. His death will definitely send a wave of sympathy among his followers, while others who feared his strong-arm tactics breathe a sigh of relief. Political parties, indeed, will try to use his death and its circumstance to their electoral advantage, even though it will only have a very limited impact
The BJP which has been boasting about its crackdown on the mafia as its biggest achievement, will use it to bolster its ‘Mitti me Mafia’ slogan. For, the ruling party is aware of the attempts by other political parties to polarize the elections by raising the issue of Mukhtar’s death and seeking votes by empathising with his supporters. BJP will now be more vocal among the voters on the issue in its election campaign.
It is also clearly visible (since Mukhtar’s death) that the opposition parties have started making all efforts to polarize votes into their accounts. SP was the first to express condolences on the social media raising questions on the intent of the state government machinery in the matter followed by BSP supremo Mayawati, who went a step ahead demanding a high-level investigation into the cause of death!
SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was also not left behind when he declared Mukhtar a `Gareebon Ka Masiha’, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also encashed the opportunity by visiting the bereaved family at their home town in Ghazipur. However, on the accusation of Mukhtar’s family of him being given poison in the jail, Congress UP chief Ajay Rai also expressed concern and said that the accusations are big and they should be deeply investigated.
However his death will not have any drastic effect in the region other than the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat where Mukhtar’s brother Afzal is the sitting MP from the BSP. The seat has by and large remained with the SP and the BSP for the past two decades with Afzal winning it in 2004 (SP) and 2019 (BSP). In 2009, another candidate from SP, Radha Mohan Singh and the BJP won only once (in the past 20 years) when Manoj Sinha won from here in 2014. Afzal has been once again given the ticket from the Ghazipur seat, however this time by his old accomplice SP.
The Ansari family also enjoys substantial influence in the neighboring Mau district which is also reflected by the result of the lone Ghosi seat where the SP and the BSP have been winning for the past two decades barring 2014 when the BJP’s Hari Narayan Rajbhar had won.
Mukhtar was the most notorious name of UP for the past few decades as the mastermind of organized crime and with the continuous shockers on the legal front during the last two years (ever since he was shifted to UP’s Banda jail from Punjab), his terror machinery was deteriorating increasingly helpless and getting paralyzed. With his death ending a chapter of crime, the issue of law and order has again come into discussion with the ruling BJP again pressing its commitment of a safe and developing state on all fronts.
As told to Rajat Rai
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