Last December, weeks after he was restored into the Samajwadi Party and declared its candidate in Sultanpur, Atiq Ahmed, the politician from Allahabad, stormed into the constituency with a cavalcade consisting of hundreds of vehicles. He was allegedly accompanied by gun-toting supporters, a claim he later dismissed. While the residents of Sultanpur were left shocked, the incident did not come as a surprise for many. Mr. Ahmed, 51, the alleged-mafia don-turned politician, faces 42 criminal cases, including charges like criminal intimidation, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion and has been out on bail since February 2012 after spending four years in prison.
He has the distinction of being the first person to be booked under the State's notorious Gangster Act and stands trial in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005. Talking to The Hindu on his way to campaigning in Shrawasti, where he is now fielded, Mr. Ahmed hopes to convert that “negative publicity” into a winning formula backed by favourable Muslim-Yadav caste equation in the constituency. By his own admission he has been successful. “The media's publicity of me as a mafia don has helped increase my popularity. Badnaam hi sahi, popular toh ban rahe hai,” says Mr. Ahmed.
Ridden with poor infrastructure, Shrawasti is a backward constituency bordering with Nepal. Mr. Ahmed, who won the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat in 2004, has promised voters that he would convert the constituency in a tourist hub. In a recent public meeting in Balrampur, SP chief Mulayam Singh promised to provide a “special package” to the constituency. “Development is a key issue but my priority is to make Mulayam Singh the PM,” says Mr. Ahmed. “So every seat is precious.”
Mr. Ahmed faces sitting Congress MP Vinay Kumar Pandey, who has five declared criminal cases against him. Along with Mr. Ahmed, the fifth phase of the elections in UP on May 7 will decide the fate of many tainted leaders, most of them belonging to the Samajwadi Party. In Faizabad, SP MLA from Bikapur, Mitrasen Yadav, who has 15 criminal cases and a long history of criminal background and convictions against him will challenge sitting Congress MP and UPCC president Nirmal Khatri.
The BJP has fielded Lallu Singh, an accused in the Babri Masjid demolition while the BSP's candidate Jitendra Kumar Singh has 16 cases against him. In Kaiserganj, the BJP candidate and sitting MP Brij Bushan Sharan recently joined the party after quitting the SP also has a long criminal history and is also an accused in the Babri Masjid demolition. So is Pawan Pandey, the BSP candidate in Sultanpur, who has 32 criminal cases against him including murder and rioting. He will look to turn the Dalit-Brahmin equation in his favour to challenge BJP general secretary Varun Gandhi. In Sant Kabir Nagar, the SP has fielded Bal Chandra Yadav, who has 10 criminal cases against him, including attempt to murder. The party's sitting MPs and candidates in Fatehpur and Kaushambi, Rakesh Sachan and Shailendra Kumar also have criminal cases (8 and 4) against them.
In Phulpur, the sitting BSP MP Kapil Muni Karwariya has 4 criminal cases against him while the BJP candidate and MLA Keshav Prasad Maurya has 11, including murder and creating enmity between groups. The SP's candidate and former MP Dharamraj Patel also faces two criminal cases while the Congress candidate in Allahabad Nand Gupta Gopal Nandi faces seven.
