The Samajwadi Party and Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal were merged today in Lucknow.
Highlights
- Quami Ekta Dal was founded by Mukhtar Ansari and his family in 2010
- Mukhtar Ansari, on trial in a murder case, has been in jail for 10 years
- He is also named in cases of extortion and abduction
Elections are a time of political crossovers and mergers, but a merger of a smaller party with the ruling Samajwadi Party ahead of next year's assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh comes with a twist. The smaller party in question is the Quami Ekta Dal, founded by jailed legislator Mukhtar Ansari and his family in 2010.
Mr Ansari is on trial for the murder of a political rival and has been lodged in jail for more than a decade. Besides, he is also accused in cases of extortion and abduction.
Hours after the merger, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav removed a senior minister - Balram Yadav -- who is believed to have negotiated the merger, said to be an initiative of senior Samajwadi Party leader and Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Shivpal Yadav.
Shivpal Yadav evaded questions on Mr Ansari's links to crime.
"Everyone knows they have influence. However, only those present here have joined the party and not Mukhtar," he said. Mr Ansari has considerable influence over pockets of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the districts of Mau and Ghazipur in particular.
The opposition BJP questions how Mr Yadav's claim could hold water. "There are two MLAs, the parties have merged... the Samajwadi Party is just desperate ahead of the polls," said senior BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
Mr Ansari, who joined politics in 1995, won elections as an Independent and then joined Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. Ms Mayawati expelled him in 2010 after he was charged under the MCOCA for running an organised crime syndicate. Six years later, he was acquitted in that case for lack of evidence.
His elder brother Sibakatullah Ansari is the other legislator of the Quami Ekta Dal.