Last week, a Varanasi court sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, 60, to life imprisonment in the murder of Awadhesh Rai, the brother of senior Congress leader and five-time MLA Ajay Rai. It was the fifth case in less than 10 months in which Mr. Ansari, a five-time MLA who wields influence across eastern Uttar Pradesh had been convicted. In April, a Ghazipur court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment in a case dating back to 2007. Today, Mr. Ansari, who has been in jail since 2005, faces more than five dozen cases, some for serious offences.
In contrast, his grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari had been the president of the two most prominent pre-independence political parties: the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Muslim League during the freedom movement. He was one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University and was its chancellor between 1928 and 1936.
In April 2021, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab police to hand over custody of Mr. Ansari to U.P., after he spent roughly 28 months in Punjab’s Ropar jail in connection with a case of extortion and criminal intimidation lodged in that State.
The April sentencing also led to the conviction of his elder brother the Ghazipur Lok Sabha MP, Afzal Ansari, leading to his disqualification as a Parliamentarian. Mr. Ansari older son Abbas Ansari is also in custody, in a money laundering case, while his wife Afsha Ansari and younger son Umar Ansari, accused in other criminal cases, are currently absconding.
The U.P. government, led by Yogi Adityanath since coming to power in March 2017, has activated the State machinery to arrest 202 members belonging to the alleged gang, and has registered 155 cases. “Out of this, action is taken against six members under the National Security Act (NSA, 1980) and against 156 accused under the Gangster Act [Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986],” said the State government in a detailed fact sheet on actions taken against what they described as the Ansari gang.
Property worth more than ₹586 crore belonging to the Ansari family has been seized, demolished, and freed from State-claimed illegal occupation. “Additionally, illegal businesses and tenders worth more than ₹2,100 crore related to the Mukhtar Ansari gang were stopped by the government,” added the U.P. government statement, after Mr. Ansari’s latest conviction, hinting at the clout manifested by the tainted mafia man, who allegedly ran an empire in Eastern U.P. districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi, and Chandauli for decades, controlling government contracts. Unlike western U.P. that benefitted economically from the private sector due it proximity to Delhi, eastern U.P. saw the growth of organized syndicates competing for government contracts, especially in the 1980s.
The first major criminal case was registered against Mr. Ansari in 1988, when he allegedly killed contractor Sachidanand Rai over a contract dispute in Ghazipur.
Mr. Ansari, as an independent MLA, supported the minority Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) government between 2003-07. He contested the 2009 parliamentary polls from Varanasi under the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) symbol, when the party was ruling U.P. His brother, Afzal Ansari was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur in 2004 and 2019 on the SP and BSP tickets, respectively. Mr. Ansari also served as an MLA in the U.P. assembly five times between 1996-2022 in the Vidhan Sabha.
“Many witnesses have been killed in cases in which the jailed former MLA was an accused,” said Shailendra Singh, an ex-Deputy Superintendent of U.P. police who charged Mr. Ansari under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) in 2004. He also alleged that the previous State government (SP) was hand-in-glove with the Ansaris.
“Before the Yogi government come to power, the Ansari syndicate took commission over most State government contracts between 2003 and 2017,” said Yogesh Singh, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader based in Ghazipur, adding that with the BJP at the helm this stopped. He also said the Ansaris associations cut across caste, class, and religious lines.
But supporters are angry. “Is this not selective targeting?” said Farhan Alam, a supporter of the Ansari family in Mau. “Be it Mau [Abbas Ansari won the assembly seat in 2022] or Mohammadabad [Mr. Ansari’s nephew Suhaib won from here], or the Ghazipur Parliamentary seat, nowhere are Muslims even 20%. Despite that the family has been winning Mau since 1996 and has won Ghazipur twice,” said Mr. Alam, adding they always stood with the oppressed classes. “Hence the oppressor never liked them.” BSP chief Mayawati had called Mr. Ansari “a messiah of the poor” during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Ashok Upadhyay, a political scientist teaching in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) said, “Due to their electoral might and resources, political parties wanted to associate with them as winnability is the only factor for parties and for gangs like Ansari syndicate.”
