‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

Tribune Web Desk

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, March 29

A day after jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest several districts of Uttar Pradesh were put on high alert.

Family members, including son Umar Ansari, have alleged that Ansari was “subjected to slow poisoning in jail”, a charge that is denied by authorities.

Ansari died at a hospital in Banda in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

Heart attack or poisoning

Several opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the BSP, have condoled his death and demanded a probe into it.

Brother Afzal Ansari—an SP candidate for Ghazipur for the upcoming Lok Sabha election—had claimed that Mukhtar was being poisoned in jail as part of a “conspiracy” to murder him.

Mayawati, chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party, who had fielded Ansari for his first Assembly election, said serious allegations by the family required a “high-level investigation” so that facts “can be revealed”.

The 63-year-old five-time MLA from Mau Sadar had been behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005.

He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him.

Alka Rai, the wife of Krishnanand Rai who defeated Afzal Ansari from Mohammadabad in the 2002 Assembly election and was shot dead along with his six aides, called it the “blessing of the Almighty” adding that “justice has been served”.

“What can I say? This is the blessing of the Almighty. I used to pray to him for justice and it has been served today,” she was quoted as saying.

Alka said after her husband's death they never celebrated Holi and “today is Holi for us”. “It is a day of happiness for those children who were orphaned because a criminal has been removed from the earth," she added.

A court in Ghazipur convicted and sentenced Ansari to 10 years' imprisonment for his murder in April 2023.

Ansari—crime and politics   

Hailing from an influential family of Ghazipur, Ansari had a strong influence in Ghazipur and adjoining regions, including Varanasi district.

According to reports, Ansari's initiation into the world of crime was aimed at establishing his gang in the government contract sector of the state. 

He built on his image as someone who also "helped those in need" and the Muslim vote bank for electoral gains.

His stint in crime started in 1978 when Ansari was just 15 and in the next few years became a well-known face in the contract mafia circles and a common face of crime. 

His growing criminal graph helped entry into politics and he was first elected an MLA in 1996 on a BSP ticket from Mau.

Ansari was elected as an Independent candidate in 2002 and 2007. In 2012, he launched Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) and won from Mau. In 2022, he vacated the seat for son Abbas Ansari.

From 2005 till his death, Ansari remained lodged in different jails of UP and Punjab in multiple criminal cases, including that of murder and under the UP's Gangster Act. He was also under intense heat from police since 2020 which either seized or demolished illegal property belonging to the Ansari gang, the reports add.

“The combination of crime, politics and religion instigated several incidents of communal violence in the Purvanchal region. Adding to the nexus between crime and politics are the deep divisions on the basis of caste and community, poverty and economic disparity. Ansari also faced charges of inciting violence following one such riot,” say observers.

His name was on the list of 66 gangsters issued by Uttar Pradesh Police last year.

However, people loyal to him vouched for his “generosity and that “nobody went away empty- handed from his door”.  

In January 2019, Ansari, then a BSP MLA, was lodged in the Ropar jail in connection with an extortion case and remained there for more than two years.

While he was being transferred to UP on the court's directions, his supporters alleged he would be killed in a “fake encounter” like others before him.

After gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and brother Ashraf were killed on camera the media focus had turned on Mukhtar Ansari and brother Afzal Ansari.

Like Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari remained a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly multiple times.

"Also, like Atiq, he had multiple criminal cases registered against him, including the 1996 abduction of coal industrialist Nandkishore Rungta and Rai in 2005," observers add.

Crime and politics in UP’s Purvanchal

Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are among the poorest regions in the state. Purvanchal is also infamous for ‘bahubalis’/gangsters/ mafia dons the region has produced in the past few decades.

Despite the discourse to end crime from the region since the times of Congress’s Vir Bahadur Singh, mafia dons continued to grow and prosper in Purvanchal regions — Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Basti, Varanasi, Mau—with many also doing well for themselves in politics.

Social observers attribute the genesis of mafia dons in these parts to the failure of administration.

Times may have changed but the relevance of words like ‘varchaswa’ (dominance) and ‘sanrakshan’ (protection) in the caste-dominated badlands of UP remains the same, they say.

Politicians used local strongmen to get government and railway contracts and also votes. Later, these gangsters themselves gained power and made their way into politics. Their success in politics is also a reflection of the failure of successive governments to provide what they promised to the people.

In fact, Virendra Pratap Shahi and Hari Shankar Tiwari are seen as flag-bearers of organised crime in the Gorakhpur region.

Locals say gangsters like Ansari also provided help, including financial aid, to supporters. Not only did some of these gangsters gain prominence in the region, they also established contacts with counterparts in Mumbai to acquire sophisticated arms.

Open display of wealth and power by these gangster-turned-politicians and the resulting “respect” gave the youth another reason to join the world of organised crime in the early 1970s when it all began.

Criminal activities like land/property-grabbing, illegal mining, getting government contracts through force, contract killings, extortion and kidnapping for ransom became rampant and for the unemployed it was an easy way to fame, power and money.

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