Mayawati says won't field mafia candidates

The BSP will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in next year's Uttar Pradesh polls, party chief Mayawati said Friday, announcing that jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari will not be renominated by the party from Mau.

Soon after her statement, Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which has announced to contest 100 seats, offered Ansari a ticket, with its spokesperson Syed Asim Waqar telling PTI that “our doors are open for him”.

Mayawati said BSP state president Bhim Rajbhar will contest from Mau, currently represented by Mukhtar Ansari, the five-term MLA who was brought back from Punjab's Ropar jail in April and lodged in a Banda jail.

Her announcement comes days after Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sigbatullah joined the Akhilesh Yadavled Samajwadi Party.

“In upcoming assembly polls, the BSP'S effort will be to not field 'bahubali' and mafia elements. So, the name of Bhim Rajbhar, the BSP UP president, has been finalised from the Mau assembly seat in place of Mukhtar Ansari,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.