New Delhi: “Aaj Yogi aur Modiji ki den hai ki humko nyay mila hai (It is by the grace of Yogi Adityanath and Narendra Modi that we have got justice today),” Alka Rai told reporters in Varanasi on March 29 as she reacted to former legislator Mukhtar Ansari’s death. That Alka decided to credit two top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders – the prime minister and a chief minister – for what the party’s government in Uttar Pradesh has claimed was a natural death due to “cardiac arrest”, at a time when Mukhtar’s family has alleged it was murder, speaks volumes about the affairs in the state.
A former BJP MLA, Alka is the widow of Krishnanand Rai, who was murdered in 2005. Krishnanand was a BJP MLA when he was killed and his family had accused Mukhtar, his brother and MP Afzal Ansari and others of being behind the murder. In 2019, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Delhi acquitted Mukhtar, Afzal and five others in the murder case, but the incident continued to cast a long shadow over the caste and communal politics in Purvanchal.
With Mukhtar’s death on March 28 – his family has alleged he was poisoned at the behest of the state government – most of the focus has been on his criminal record of 65 FIRs, conviction in eight cases in the last 1.5 years and the suspicious circumstances leading up to his hospitalisation and demise. However, all these are intertwined with his political career and political significance in the state, especially in eastern UP. Ever since the BJP came to power in 2017, Mukhtar was placed at the centre of the government’s so-called “zero tolerance policy” as it unleashed a wave of terror against alleged mafia and those designated by it as “gangsters”. The BJP government in its election campaigns projected the alleged highhandedness against Mukhtar and his family as one of its biggest accomplishments against ‘mafia’ elements.
Mukhtar’s criminal record, tainted strongman politics, successful electoral record, bold and unmissable personality – defined by a twirled-up moustache – and Muslim identity, located in the warrens of the harsh criminal-politics nexus of the state, made him the perfect target, or scapegoat, as his family alleged on numerous occasions.
The 2005 murder compounded the bad blood between the Ansaris and the Rai family and consequently, with a section of the dominant Bhumihar community they belong to. Mukhtar was perhaps the most polarising and tainted politician in the state. The BJP and dominant caste lobbies loathed him as a dreaded mafia and gangster, while in his political backyard in Mau-Ghazipur-Varanasi, large sections of backward caste and Muslim voters looked at him as their defender against feudal and communal forces. For them, he was the man who could use his muscle to address their grievances.
Krishnanad Rai.
Mukhtar won the Mau MLA seat five times in a row from 1996 to 2022, when he, still in jail, handed over the political baton to his son Abbas Ansari. In 2009, Mukhtar lost to senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi in the Varanasi Lok Sabha election by a thin margin. The Ansaris, though largely presented by mainstream media through their religious identity, enjoyed political and social clout in the Mau-Ghazipur belt among all communities. Many of Ansari’s aides and supporters were Hindu and their patronage network ensured they remained electorally relevant despite changing governments.
In a declaration in the UP assembly, Mukhtar had in his bio-data submitted that protection of Dalits, poor and the weak, and maintaining communal unity and brotherhood, were among his special interests.
While Mau is a small district that has developed an identity outside through its small-scale textile industries and weavers, Ghazipur, located by the Ganga, is known for its British-era opium factory, fertile lands and villages that produce jawans.
A political family
The Ansari family has had a long political history, with several of their ancestors linked to the freedom struggle, defence services, literature as well as judiciary. Mukhtar’s grandfather Mokhtar Ahmed Ansari was the president of the Congress in 1927, while his maternal grandfather was Brigadier Usman Ansari who served in the Indian Army and died fighting in a war with Pakistan in 1948. His uncle Hamid Ansari is a former vice-president of India while Mukhtar’s father Subhanullah Ansari was elected as chairman of the municipal corporation in Ghazipur.
On March 30, a large number of people attended Mukhtar’s funeral in his ancestral burial ground, a testimony to the popular support and goodwill the Ansari family enjoys among a section of people. ‘Mafia’ for the state government, he was often hailed as a ‘messiah for the poor’ by his supporters.
In recent years, Mukhtar’s brother Afzal developed a political rivalry with former BJP Union minister and current Lieutenant General of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha.
A Bhumihar, Sinha, who won the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat in 1996 and 1999, lost to Afzal in 2004 when the latter contested as a Samajwadi Party candidate. The two would contest against each other in 2019. This time too, Afzal defeated Sinha, who had been in the race to helm the BJP government in UP before Adityanath was planted from Gorakhpur. Following the defeat, Sinha retreated from electoral politics as he took oath as LG of Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. Afzal contested as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in 2019 as a joint candidate of the SP-BSP alliance.
In 2019, Ghazipur and Ghosi were among the 15 Lok Sabha seats the SP-BSP combine managed to win in UP. In the 2022 assembly election, the SP and its ally the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party won all seven seats in Ghazipur district and three out of four seats in Mau. The Mau Sadar seat and Mohammadabad seats were won by the new generation of the Ansari family – Mukhtar’s son Abbas and Mukhtar’s nephew Suhaib Ansari, who is the son of his eldest brother Sibgatullah, himself a two-time former MLA. In 2022, both Mukhtar and Sibgatullah gave up their seats and passed the baton to their sons, today 31 and 35. Abbas, a former sportsman, was later jailed by the state government and could not attend his father’s funeral.
Bahubali rivalries in east UP
In the badlands of east UP, strongmen with criminal antecedents, the so-called ‘bahubalis’, emerged in the tumultuous 1980s and ’90s, taking gang rivalries to new levels. In some cases, this also surfaced as caste rivalries as Bhumihar, Thakur and Brahmin leaders clashed with each other over contracts, projects, land plots and ‘varchasva ki ladai’. ‘Varchasva’ loosely translates as exerting domination.
It was common for rival gangs to attack each other’s men and the lines between politics and crime blurred. It was in this milieu that Mukhtar, who hailed from an illustrious political family, developed a long-standing rivalry with Thakur muscleman politician Brijesh Singh, who also endorsed Krishnanand politically.
Mukhtar’s brother Afzal has publicly alleged that Mukhtar was murdered as part of a conspiracy to prevent him from testifying against Brijesh in the 2001 Usri Chatti ambush case in which a convoy carrying Mukhtar and his men was attacked. While Mukhtar was injured and had a narrow escape, three of his aides were killed. Brijesh and his associate Tribhuvan Singh were charged as accused. In 2023, Mukhtar’s son Umar had in a petition in the Supreme Court also alleged that Brijesh in collusion with the state government was plotting to eliminate him in jail. Brijesh, a former MLC, has often received the political backing of the BJP despite more than two dozen serious criminal cases against him. In 2016, he was elected MLC from behind bars. While the BJP government has also gone after other ‘bahubali’ netas such as Vijay Mishra in Bhadohi, the family of Hari Shankar Tiwari in Gorakhpur and Dhananjay Singh in Jaunpur, it was Mukhtar who faced the full might of the state.
After 2017, the Adityanath government designated Mukhtar a “gangster” and head of gang IS191; lodged numerous criminal cases against him, his son, brother and other associates; seized, and demolished and freed from “illegal occupation” property worth crores belonging to the Ansari family. Till December 2023, the police had shot dead five persons linked to Mukhtar in alleged encounters and taken legal action against 292 persons linked to him, booked 164 of his associates under the Gangsters Act, six under the National Security Act, 67 under the Gangsters Act, expelled 60 of his associates from their districts, arrested 186 and cancelled 175 weapon licences.
Despite experimenting with various parties, the Ansaris remained a relevant local force in Purvanchal in every election and parties saw them as a way to attract Muslim voters and a section of deprived Hindus. It is said that Om Prakash Rajbhar, an OBC leader who is today a minister in the Adityanath government, was also propped up by the Ansaris, who in turn benefitted from his Rajbhar support base.
Mukhtar’s brother Afzal won the Mohammadabad assembly seat in Ghazipur five times – holding it from 1985 to 2002. Afzal’s first four wins came as a candidate of the Communist Party. In 1996, he won as a Samajwadi Party nominee, defeating the BJP candidate Krishnanand. But in 2002, Krishnanand exacted revenge and defeated Afzal.
The political climate changed drastically after Krishnanand was murdered in 2005 and the Ansari brothers were among the accused. In 2006, Alka was elected MLA from Mohammadabad after she defeated another SP candidate in a by-poll. In 2007, however, Mukhtar’s eldest brother Sibgatullah Ansari wrested back the seat as he defeated Alka.
Mukhtar’s first MLA win came as a BSP candidate in 1996. He went on to win as an independent twice before returning to the BSP in 2009 and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election. After he was expelled from the BSP, Mukhtar and his brothers formed their own party, Quami Ekta Dal (QED).
In 2012, Sibgatullah got his second victory, as he defeated candidates from the SP, BSP, BJP and Congress in Mohammadabad. Mukhtar was also elected an MLA from Mau Sadar seat in the adjoining district of the same name in 2012 as a QED candidate. The QED won two seats in the 403-member UP assembly.
In 2014, amid the hype over Narendra Modi’s entry into UP politics, Mukhtar announced he would contest against the Gujarat chief minister from Varanasi but eventually backed out to prevent a division of secular votes and supported the Congress.
In the 2017 assembly election, the BJP again fielded Alka, who, still trying to play up a sympathy wave in her favour, defeated Sibgatullah in Mohammadabad. Sibgatullah contested as a BSP candidate following the dissolution of the QED and an unsuccessful attempt to align with the SP, which under Akhilesh Yadav kept the Ansari family at a distance due to Mukhtar’s criminal record.
Mayawati, however, while welcoming the Ansaris into her party, even defended the criminal charges against Ansari, suggesting that he was framed and that “there are bigger goondas in other parties”. While Mukhtar won Mau for the fifth time, his son Abbas, a former sportsperson with a successful skit shooting career, also made his political debut in 2017. However, Abbas lost in a close contest in Ghosi.
A shift under Adityanath
Although Mukhtar had been in jail since 2005, following allegations against him in the Mau riots, the turning point came after the Adityanath government came to power. Mukhtar was accused of instigating the riots even though his family claimed that he, as local legislator, had stepped out atop a jeep to calm things down. The role of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an ultra-right-wing group formed by Adityanath, also came under scanner for the riots. It is believed that Adityanath and Ansari developed a deep disdain for each other following the Mau incident.
While the Adityanath regime had already initiated an iron-fist policy against the Ansaris and other tainted non-BJP politicians, it became more intense after July 2020, when the Bikru incident in Kanpur had pushed the state on a backfoot. Eight policemen including a circle officer of the Brahmin community were shot dead by history-sheeter Vikas Dubey, also a Brahmin, and his men. In retaliation, the state police shot dead Dubey and half-a-dozen of his associates. To placate the influential Brahmin community, the government unleashed a new campaign of punitive measures against politicians with a criminal record and alleged bahubalis. Mukhtar was at the top of the list, with the Adityanath government flaunting the action against him in the elections. In most cases, the BJP used dog-whistle tactics to demonise the Ansaris for their Muslim identity and criminal cases.
In November 2021, while campaigning for the 2022 assembly election, Union home minister Amit Shah said voters in UP had to choose between two sets of JAMs – BJP’s Jan Dhan Yojana, aadhaar card and Mobile phones for everyone versus Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mohammad Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari.
In December 2023, Mukhtar’s youngest son Umar filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the state government was plotting to murder his father in Banda jail, where he had been lodged after being transferred from Punjab in 2021. Mukhtar had been transferred from Ropar jail in Punjab to Banda on the directions of the Supreme Court after the UP government moved court for his custody. The Adityanath government had accused the then Congress-led Punjab government of allowing Mukhtar to be escorted from Ropar jail to a court in Mohali in a luxury and bullet proof ambulance with a number plate of Barabanki district of UP.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Photo: Facebook/MYogiAdityanath
In his petition, Umar pointed out that four persons accused in the Krishnanand murder were killed by the police or murdered, and alleged that Mukhtar feared the same for himself before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “Though all the accused persons in the said case of the murder of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai have been acquitted by the court, the ruling dispensation continues to view all the accused persons, including the father of the Petitioner, as culprits and BJP leaders in the state have time and again sworn vengeance from public platforms,” said Umar in his petition, which was heard by the Supreme Court.
Umar referred to the killing of Firdaus by the UP Special Task Force in 2006; and the murder of Mukhtar-aide Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi by another convicted gangster Sunil Rathi in Baghpat jail in 2018, a week after Bajrangi’s wife Seema had alleged that the UP police along with some political leaders and officials were conspiring to get him eliminated outside the jail in a “fake encounter.” In 2016, Bajrangi’s brother-in-law Pushpjeet Singh, a lawyer who had pursued his legal cases, and his friend were gunned down by unidentified assailants in Lucknow. Bajrangi’s family alleged Krishnanand’s family had a role in the murder.
Another aide of Mukhtar’s, Rakesh Pandey, was shot dead by the police in an alleged “encounter” in August 2020 after the SUV he was purportedly travelling in along with four other persons crashed into a tree in Lucknow. Pandey’s family had accused the police of lifting him from his residence in Lucknow and then killing him. Then, in June 2023, Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jeeva, an alleged associate of Mukhtar, was shot dead inside a courtroom in Lucknow while he was being produced before a judge.
Since September 2022, Mukhtar has also been convicted in eight different cases by local courts. He was awarded life imprisonment.
Opposition leaders have demanded that Mukhtar’s death be probed. The BJP has responded to this by accusing them of appeasing Muslim sentiments and overlooking Mukhtar’s criminal past.
With Afzal declared the SP’s candidate in the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat, one can expect Mukhtar’s death to be politicised further as the campaign picks up pace. For now, the dust needs to settle over the circumstances of his death.
“When the time is right, we will produce all the proof to show that he was poisoned to death,” said Afzal after Mukhtar was buried in Ghazipur amid heavy deployment of police force.
