Looking at the manipulative tactics employed by powerful mafias and bahubalis, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. How these influential individuals use their family members, specifically their wives, sons, and daughters, as proxy candidates to win elections.
The Print As Mukhtar & Afzal Ansari are convicted, story of a UP power clan & its fall from nationalism to gangsterism SHEKHAR GUPTA 29 April, 2023 Communism, anti-Bhumihar mobilisation, philanthropy — the cult of the Ansaris in Ghazipur; Sanya Dhingra; Apr 16, 2024
Indian Express Azam Khan sentenced to 7-year jail term in Rampur house vandalism case Three reasons why BJP dropped Brij Bhushan Singh, opted for his son in Kaiserganj; Asad Rehman; May 3, 2024
Serial turncoat Afzal Ansari gets SP ticket now, set to contest after SC nod Manish Sahu | February 20, 2024
NEWS18 An Idea Can Change Your Life: For LS Polls, Bihar's Don Marries in 'Inauspicious Period' | How 'Mrs Bahubalis' Used as Proxies Sanstuti Nath: MARCH 21, 2024
Bihar: वोटिंग से पहले नोट का खेल! RJD प्रत्याशी बीमा भारती के दो PA हिरासत में, पास से मिले लाखों रुपये| Pravin Kumar APRIL 26, 2024
THE HINDUSTAN TIMES Who is Ashok Mahto, gangster married at 56 for Lok Sabha ticket? He has link to Khakee web series By HT News Desk, Mar 21, 2024
THE TIMES OF INDIA Villagers happy with Mahto's arrest Vinay Kumar / TNN / Aug 15, 2006
RJD’s Randhir may contest as Independent candidate H K Verma / TNN /: Apr 21, 2024
Complainant hostile, Mukhtar acquitted in murder-bid case Rajeev Dikshit / TNN /: May 18, 2023
VP refers Sanjay Raut plaint to privileges panel TNN /: May 18, 2023
Speculation rife over Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as BJP count. Pankaj Shah / TNN / Updated: Apr 21, 2024
REDIFF.COM Bihar massacre jolts NDA Soroor Ahmed: Jun 13, 2024
HERALDGOA.IN SC Directs HCs to Monitor, Expedite Criminal Cases Against MPs & MLAs Team Herald | 09 Nov 2023
THE ECONOMIC TIMES Dhananjay Singh sentenced to seven years of jail in kidnapping case, won't be able to contest Jaunpur LS polls Mar 06, 2024
Lok Sabha revokes Afzal Ansari's disqualification after SC order, but he can't attend House PTI Jan 12, 2024
Mukhtar Ansari gets over 5 years rigorous imprisonment, Rs 10,000 fine for threatening coal trader's brother ANI Dec 15, 2023
Lady don Afsha: The story of Mukhtar Ansari's fugitive wife Mar 30, 2024
INDIA.COM Mukhtar Ansari Death: ‘He Was Poisoned’, Claims Brother Afzal Ansari Joy Pillai | March 30, 2024 4:25 PM IST
THE HINDU SC conditionally suspends conviction of former BSP MP Afzal Ansari THE HINDU BEREAU | December 14, 2023
LIVELAW Supreme Court(2:1 Majority) Suspends Conviction Of BSP MP Afsal Ansari; Dissenting Judge Says Impact On Electorate Can't Be Considered LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK | 14 Dec 2023 9:26 PM
NDTV Relief For Disqualified MP Afzal Ansari, Allahabad High Court Grants Him Bail NDTV News Desk | Updated: July 24, 2023
00:00Mukhtar Ansari, the notorious mafia don, once reigned supreme over UP's Purvanchal for over three decades.
00:08Gaining clout by committing heinous crimes, from murder, illegal coal mining, to forcefully cornering government contracts.
00:16And as all these mafias do to save themselves, he too turned to politics in 1995, going on to become a five-time MLA.
00:24But now, after the 60-year-old's sudden death in jail, which his elder brother Afzal had predicted,
00:30perhaps sensing that like Atik Ahmed was shot while in police custody in April 2023, his brother too would be eliminated.
00:37Afzal, the 70-year-old eternal opportunist, is now trying to secure his dead brother's vote bank through conspiracy theories.
00:44Because it was actually Afzal, who stayed in the shadows, but was the real political brain, planning coal campaigns and fighting legal battles,
00:57himself becoming a five-time MLA and two-time MP, more successful than his brother Mukhtar, who never made MP.
01:04But the secret to Afzal's success, was knowing the right time to jump political ships ahead of elections,
01:10perhaps inheriting the political acumen from his grandfather, who was president in both Muslim League and Congress pre-independence,
01:17or from his Communist Party leader father, but whose principles he broke away from by becoming part of Mukhtar's coal mining mafia,
01:25hatching a heinous plan with his brother to kidnap and brutally murder the biggest coal trader back in 1997,
01:31and orchestrating BJP MLA's Chris and Anand Rai's revenge killing, with their henchmen spraying Rai and his associates with 500 rounds of bullets.
01:40The daring dons remain scot-free for both these open acts of violence, as fearful complainants and eyewitnesses turned hostile.
01:48It was only after the Yogi government gave them witness protection in 2023, specifically for these two cases,
01:54that they gave evidence for a court to find them guilty, with Mukhtar getting 10 years in jail for his direct involvement,
02:01and Afzal 4 years as an accomplice.
02:03Stripped of his empty seat for a minimum 6 years under the Act, yet greedy to hold on to political power, he applied for bail,
02:10which surprisingly was generously granted by the Alabad High Court in July 2023,
02:15which the Supreme Court not only upheld, but also temporarily restored his membership as MP,
02:21and allowed him to contest on the grounds that,
02:24it will cause irreparable damage to the convict and his constituency, if he is equated later.
02:30Now riding Samajwadi Party's cycle on a sympathy wave against Mukhtar's death,
02:35he will fancy his chances against BJP's greenhorn, Parasnat Rai, in this election.
02:41However, because his political fate hangs by a thread,
02:44as the Alabad High Court may give its verdict on the challenge to his conviction even before elections,
02:49he introduced his daughter Nusrat into the campaign,
02:53as his proxy candidate worried to get convicted,
02:56who is even seen worshipping in temples to get support of the Hindu electorate.
03:00But it was the Congress, under Sanjay Gandhi's influence,
03:03who started using goons as proxy to implement his agendas,
03:07like Nasbandi Vasek Tommy in the 1970s.
03:10During the emergency years 75-77,
03:13internal democracy in the Congress died,
03:16and loyalty to Indira Gandhi became absolute.
03:18And this Sanjay culture helped many criminals and thugs
03:22to get into positions of leadership in the Congress.
03:25But the real reasons politicians needed gangsters
03:28was for booth capturing and bullying weaker sections
03:30that would help them get to victory,
03:33while the criminals could end up in jail.
03:35Though sometimes they were required from there as well,
03:38like when Congress got Afzal, Atik,
03:40and four other hardened criminals released from different jails in July 2008,
03:44just to get them to parliament
03:46and support Dr. Manmohan Singh's tottering UPA government
03:50against a left-plus-BJP no-confidence motion.
03:53However, the trend soon changed,
03:55and smart criminals like Arun Gavli and Atik Ahmed
03:58themselves turned to politics to better influence some arms of the law.
04:02By the late 1980s,
04:04BJP also started aping Congress
04:06and took in strongmen like Brig Bhushan Singh.
04:08The six-time MP,
04:10five of it as a BJP legislator,
04:12built a mountain of money,
04:13allegedly through liquor contracts,
04:15coal mining,
04:16illegal sand mining,
04:17and educational institutions in UP.
04:19But what made him vastly more powerful
04:22was his dominion over the wrestling federation,
04:25which would have continued
04:26had Olympic medalist wrestlers
04:27Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Pogat
04:29not sat on a dharna
04:30and demanded his removal
04:32on serious allegations of exploiting
04:34poor young female wrestlers
04:36in his specially organized wrestling camps,
04:38forcing Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur
04:41to remove him as chief of the wrestling federation.
04:44Though the cunning Politico Mafia
04:45remote controls it via proxy
04:47through its newly elected head,
04:49and will now also control his MP seat of Kaisar Ganj
04:52via his 28-year-old son Karan Bhushan Singh
04:55as the new candidate in the current elections.
04:58At one point last year,
04:59it seemed that BJP might do away with Brig Bhushan entirely
05:02as they didn't want to antagonize the JHAD community
05:05to whom the wrestlers belong.
05:07But it turned out to be just a trick
05:09as the BJP waited
05:10till the first two phases of voting in Western UP
05:13where JHAD's dominate ended
05:15before announcing his son's candidature
05:17showing perhaps a compromise had already been reached
05:20between BJP and Bhushan behind the scenes.
05:23Some of this duplicity
05:24is even been seen in UP's Yogi government
05:26that has otherwise been tough on gangsters.
05:29Mafia ko metti me mela deenge.
05:31Vikas Dubey, the dreaded gangster,
05:34was encountered while in police custody
05:35and many more were eliminated
05:37in the seven years of his rule.
05:39And even though the bulldozer Baba
05:41cleaned up most Mafia political candidates
05:44including Samajwadhi's
05:45Mohammed Azam Khan and Vijay Mishra
05:47and BSP's Dhananjai Singh,
05:49they are still trying to make their way back
05:51via proxies.
05:52Dhananjai Singh put his South Indian wife
05:54Shrikala Reddy on BSP's bandwagon
05:56as his proxy candidate from Jaunpur.
06:00Though BSP pulled the rug out
06:02from under her candidature
06:04just 20 days later,
06:05angry at Dhananjai's internal collusion
06:07with the BJP.
06:09In Bihar, India's other gangster-prone state,
