Afzal Ansari, donning a hat and shades, tells villagers in rural Ghazipur that the government calls him a “mafia” while he has always been a “messiah of the poor”. Have you ever seen a mafia wearing a ‘hawai chappal’ or drive a 12-year-old car, Ansari asks News18 when confronted. A court convicted him under the Gangsters Act in 2023 and handed him a four-year jail term.
Situated next to the BJP’s bastion of Varanasi, Ghazipur is a Samajwadi Party (SP) fortress. The opposition party won all seven seats of Ghazipur in the 2022 assembly polls. Afzal Ansari, then with BSP, defeated BJP heavy-weight Manoj Sinha to win the parliamentary seat in 2019 and is in the contest again now from the SP. This time, the death of his brother Mukhtar Ansari in a UP jail two months ago has become a major poll issue, with Afzal Ansari seeking ‘justice’.
“It is a fact that Mukhtar was poisoned and murdered by the government inside jail. I do not trust the government medical reports as they are involved themselves. If our government is formed, trust me, the truth will come out and big culprits will go to jail,” Afzal told News18, saying he wants the people to deliver justice to him at the EVM booths for his brother’s death. At every rally, Afzal strikes this emotional chord with people. Many nod in agreement and doubt Mukhtar’s ‘natural death’.
Bulldozer Model
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ‘bulldozer model’ has worked the most in Ghazipur against the Ansari family, with action taken against the family’s properties. Afzal calls it unjust but adds that people have given their verdict on the same. “BJP faced reverses in Purvanchal (East UP) in 2022 assembly elections due its arrogance. BJP lost in all assembly seats in Ghazipur and Azamgarh districts. Same will happen in the Lok Sabha polls,” Afzal told News18.
The aggressive pursuit of legal cases against the Ansaris in courts by the Yogi government pushed Mukhtar into jail and Afzal Ansari saw the first conviction against him last year under the Gangsters Act. He was earlier acquitted in the Krishnanand Rai murder case which has been challenged in the high court. Afzal has moved for a stay on his conviction and the matter will be heard on May 20. His daughter Nusrat has filed nomination as an independent to act as a back-up.
Afzal says his family has an illustrious history, has fought for independence, and has been unfairly targeted. “Those who have no history are jealous of my family’s history. Those who did not sacrifice even a nail in the fight for Independence, they hate our illustrious history. Our ancestor, Dr MA Ansari, was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and joined Congress to become its president in 1926. He gave his house in Daryaganj to Gandhi to make it the Congress office in Delhi,” Afzal said.
He said 12 members of his family had gone to jail during the Independence movement. “My house was once run over by British forces because freedom fighters took shelter there, and now the BJP government in the state is running a bulldozer over it. A school in the name of MA Ansari in Ghazipur was demolished by them,” Afzal told News18. He said the BJP government in UP was arrogant and will pay the price for it.
BJP’s challenge
Manoj Sinha’s right-hand man, Paras Nath, is the BJP’s candidate from Ghazipur and has been associated with the RSS, leading to the right-wing organisation putting in full efforts on the seat. “Paras Nath may be fighting his first election but he is a well-known face to BJP workers as he has managed all elections of Manoj Sinha for over two decades. But yes, if Manoj Sinha had contested, BJP would have won from Ghazipur this time,” a group of BJP workers here said.
The demographics of the seat suit the opposition alliance of the SP-Congress, other locals said. “But Ghazipur needs to decide — will the people stick on with the SP which won all seven assembly seats here, or join the mainstream of the BJP which is in power both in the state and the Centre. The district needs to get rid of its mafia-raj image,” a group of elderly men in the Ghazipur market told News18. Thousands had turned up for Mukhtar Ansari’s last rites two months ago and Ansaris hope the ‘sympathy card’ will see them through.
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