UP voters reject musclemen, turncoats

A majority of musclemen, who were fielded by different political outfits in the hope that they would have no difficulty in sailing through, had to accept the defeat in the elections and that too by good margins.

The desire among the voters to keep the mafia dons and criminals away from the Lok Sabha was so strong that at many places political greenhorns were able to inflict humiliating defeats on them. Mafia don and BSP nominee from Varanasi Mukhtar Ansari, who spearheaded his campaign from inside the jail, was rejected by the voters, who preferred BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi.

Similarly Mukhtar's brother Afzal Ansari, who was fielded by the Bahujan Samaj Party from Ghazipur, his home turf, lost to SP’s Radhey Mohan Singh, who has a clean image.

Similar fate befell mafia don D P Yadav, father of Vikas Yadav, who is the main accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, in Budaon. Yadav lost by a margin of over 33,000 votes to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew Dharmendra Yadav. Another history sheeter Rizwan Zaheer, who was nominated by BSP, had to face a humiliating defeat at Shravasti from the Congress’ soft-spoken candidate Vinay Pandey.

In the Hamierpur LS seat, SP’s criminal nominee Ashok Chandel was relegated to third spot. A political greenhorn and Congress nominee Anu Tandon made history-sheeter BSP candidate Arun Shankar Shukla to bite the dust at Unnao Lok Sabha constituency by over three lakh votes. Similarly independent candidate and mafia don Ateeq Ahmed also lost in Pratapgarh seat and was pushed to third position.

However four mafia dons-turned politicians—Dhananjay Singh (BSP), Ramakant Yadav (BJP), Pras Nath Yadav and Brij Bhushan Saran Singh (both SP) —were able to make it.

The turncoats also had to face a similar fate. SP’s sitting MP from Mohanlal Ganj Jaiprakash Rawat, who had contested on a  BSP ticket was rejected by the voters. Similar fate befell Kirit Bardhan Singh, who had defected from the SP to the BSP.

BJP legislator Ajai Rai, who turned rebel after being denied ticket and contested from Varanasi, also had to taste defeat. Mafia don Hari Shankar Tewari’s relative Ganesh Shankar Pandey, who had also switched loyalty and joined the BSP was shown the door by the voters in Gorakhpur.
DH News Service