The commission submitted its report in 1964, but like the fate of most such reports it got buried forever.Since then, the backwardness of Ghazipur largely became a tabletop discussion for parties.
Six decades later, Ghazipur is hogging the limelight again for another infamous reason: can it disassociate itself from the legacy of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, whose shadow looms large in these elections despite his death two months ago?
Mukhtar’s brother Afzal Ansari, the sitting MP, is seeking re-election as an INDIA bloc candidate on SP’s symbol. In all his public addresses, Afzal rakes up Mukhtar’s death and claims his brother was poisoned in jail. He appeals to voters to teach the “oppressors” a lesson by ensuring his win.
The going, however, is not easy for Afzal. He was convicted by a Ghazipur MP-MLA court in a Gangster Act case and awarded four years in jail. Afzal will have to leave the fray in case Allahabad High Court, which is hearing his plea challenging the verdict, upholds the lower court decision. As a backup, Afzal’s daughter Nusarat Ansari has filed her nomination as an Independent from Ghazipur. Afzal, who won from Ghazipur in 2004 too, targets BJP govts over issues of inflation and unemployment, but Mukhtar’s death remains his main poll plank. “People of Ghazipur will teach BJP a lesson for all the sufferings and the treatment given to Mukhtar and our family,” he says.
Political analyst Shrikant Pandey says there are multiple reasons for the popularity of Afzal and his brothers, espe cially Mukhtar. “Besides riding the sympathy wave, Afzal is good at poll management too. And now he has the backing of Samajwadi Party’s vote bank as well,” says Pandey, a former Allahabad University students’ union president.
Despite their clout, the Ansaris have not always dominated Ghazipur’s poll arena. Their might had been challenged by BJP’s Manoj Sinha — who won from here in 1996, 1999 and 2014. In fact, Sinha’s development projects earned him the sobriquet of ‘Vikas Purush’ (development man) in the constituency.
After Sinha lost to Afzal in 2019, BJP moved him to Jammu and Kashmir as the lieutenant governor. This time, the party has fielded Parasnath Rai, an RSS man and a trusted associate of Sinha. Rai openly credits Sinha for getting the BJP ticket. BJP is banking on the planks of development and ending “gundaraj”. Addressing an election rally in Ghazipur, CM Yogi Adityanath said it will now become a model of good governance and appealed for a thumping victory for Rai.
Political analyst Sunil Kumar says Afzal had won the last elections on a BSP ticket. As a result, he still has a hold over BSP cadre here and that has made the going tough for the BSP candidate, Umesh Singh.
Many voters in Ghazipur say they had witnessed development works like road, rail networks, health, education during Sinha’s tenure (2014-2019). But all these were stalled after 2019 and whenever they took it up with Afzal, he offered the excuse of his party not being in govt.
SP camp is confident given the caste-community equations. Among 20.7 lakh voters: Yadav and SC voters are in the strength of over 3.5 lakh while Muslim, Thakur, Bind, Kushwaha voters account for over 1.5 lakh each. Brahmin and Vaishya voters are over one lakh each.
But BJP functionaries say people who earlier voted for Ansaris out of fear will now vote fearlessly as Mukhtar is gone.
Ghazipur will decide the fate of both netas and itself when it votes on June 1.