JOIN USMusclemen, who have been part and parcel of the Uttar Pradesh politics for several decades, were consumed by the ‘Modi wave’ and were by and large rejected by the voters this time.
Many a mafia-don-turned politicians, who were in the fray on the tickets of different political parties in the state, failed to find favour with the electorate and had to bite the dust at the hustings.
Though a few musclemen did manage to gain entry into the 16th Lok Sabha, a majority of them were rejected by the people in the just concluded general elections.
This time, according to the official records, there were 235 Lok Sabha poll candidates who had criminal cases against them. Of them, there were heinous ccrime cases against 185 nominees.
Mafia-don-turned politician Ateeq Ahmed, who was in the fray on SP ticket from Shravasti, failed to make it to the Lok Sabha this time. Another mafia don Mukhtar Ansari, who had been lodged in the jail on charges of murdering a BJP MLA, had contested from Ghosi but finished a poor third.
Similarly Rizvan Zaheer, Dhananjay Singh, Afzal Ansari, Jitendra Singh alias Babloo Singh, Vinod Singh alias Pandit Singh, all of whom have several criminal cases pending against them, were defeated.
A few musclemen, however, did manage to win. They included BJP nominee from Kaiserganj Brijbhushan Saran Singh and the saffron nominee from Unnao Lok Sabha seat Sakshi Maharaj. Both of them have been facing several criminal cases.