Mukhtar Ansari is a convicted Indian gangster and politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He is the relative of former Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

Background and family

Mukhtar Ansari paternal grandfather was Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, an early president of the Indian National Congress. Mukhtar Ansari's maternal grandfather was Mohammad Usman. Mohammad Usman a Brigadier in the Indian Army who was killed in action in the Indo-Pak war of 1948.

Early life

In the early 1970s, the government commissioned several development projects in the Poorvanchal area. This resulted in the rise of organised gangs that competed with each other to grab the contracts for these projects. Mukhtar Ansari was originally an alleged member of the Makhanu Singh gang. In the 1980s, this gang clashed with another gang led by Sahib Singh, over a plot of land in Saidpur, resulting in a series of violent incidents. Brijesh Singh, an alleged member of Sahib Singh's gang, later formed his own gang and took over Ghazipur's contract work mafia in the 1990s. Ansari's gang competed with him for the control of the ₹ 100 crore contract business, which spanned areas such as coal mining, railway construction, scrap disposal, public works, and liquor business. The gangs were also allegedly involved in running protection ("goonda tax") and extortion rackets, besides other criminal activities such as kidnapping.

Early political career

By the early 1990s, Mukhtar Ansari was well known for his alleged criminal activities, especially in the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur. He entered politics around 1995 through student union in Banaras Hindu University, became an MLA in 1996, and started challenging Brijesh Singh's dominance. The two became the main gang rivals in the Poorvanchal region. In 2002, Singh allegedly ambushed Ansari's convoy. Three of Ansari's men were killed in the resulting shootout. Brijesh Singh was critically injured and presumed dead. Ansari became the undisputed gang leader in Poorvanchal. However, Brijesh Singh was later found to be alive, and the feud resumed. To counter Ansari's political influence, Singh supported the election campaign of the BJP leader Krishnanand Rai. Rai defeated Mukhtar Ansari's brother and five-time MLA Afzal Ansari from the Mohammadabad in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Mukhtar Ansari later claimed that Rai used his political office to award all the contracts to Brijesh singh's gang, and the two planned to eliminate him.

Mukhtar Ansari capitalized on the Muslim votebank to secure his electoral triumph during the Ghazipur-Mau area elections. The amalgamation of crime, politics, and religion instigated several outbreaks of communal violence within the region. Consequently, Ansari faced charges of inciting violence following one such riot. Notwithstanding, he was subsequently acquitted of these charges by the court.

Bahujan Samaj Party

Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2007. The party allowed them in, after they claimed that they had been falsely framed in criminal cases for fighting against the "feudal system", and promised to refrain from participating in any crimes. The BSP chief Mayawati portrayed Mukhtar Ansari as Robin Hood and called him "a messiah of the poor". Ansari fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi on a BSP ticket, while still lodged in the jail. He lost to BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi by a margin of 17,211 votes; he received 27.94% of the votes, compared to Joshi's 30.52%.

Mukhtar Ansari and two other persons were charge-sheeted for the murder of Kapil Dev Singh in April 2009. The police also found that he had ordered the murder of a contractor Ajay Prakash Singh in August 2009. In 2010, Ansari was booked for the murder of Ram Singh Maurya. Maurya was a witness to the murder of Mannat Singh, a local contractor allegedly killed by Ansari's gang in 2009.

The two brothers were expelled by BSP in 2010 after the party realized that they were still involved in criminal activities. A raid in Ghazipur jail, where he was lodged, had revealed that Mukhtar was living a luxurious life: items like air coolers and cooking equipment were found from his cell. He was shifted to the Mathura prison soon after the raid.

In 2004 FIR was logged by DSP Shailendra Singh against Mukhtar Ansari under POTA after recovering a light machine gun (LMG) from his premises. DSP Shailendra Singh was later implicated in the fake case of vandalism for recommending the arrest due to fall out with the then ruling Samajwadi Party government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh. Ex DSP was exonerated from fake case by Yogi Adithyanath Government in 2021.

Quami Ekta Dal

After being expelled from BSP and being rejected by other political parties, the three Ansari brothers (Mukhtar, Afzal, and Sibkatillah) formed their own political party called the Quami Ekta Dal (QED), in 2010. Earlier, Mukhtar had launched an outfit called the Hindu Muslim Ekta Party, which was merged with QED. In 2012, he was charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for being a member of an organised crime syndicate.

In March 2014, Ansari announced that he will contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi and lost there with huge difference, besides contesting from Ghosi. However, in April, he withdrew his candidature stating that he wanted to prevent division of "secular votes"

Back in BSP

On 26 January 2016, Ansari rejoined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative elections. There was widespread speculation about the Ansari brothers joining Samajwadi party a couple of months ago. BSP chief Mayawati defended his entry into the party, stating that the criminal charges against Ansari had not been proven, and that the party gives people a chance to reform themselves.

Eventually, Ansari merged his Quami Ekta Dal with BSP in 2017, and won the state elections as a BSP candidate from the Mau assembly seat. He defeated his nearest rival Mahendra Rajbhar of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (a BJP ally) by 6464 votes.

Positions held

Mukhtar Ansari has been elected 5 times as MLA from Mau constituency.