Mukhtar Ansari's MLA Son Abbas Disqualified From Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly

Lucknow: UP MLA Abbas Ansari, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after he was sentenced to two years in jail in a hate speech case, official sources said on Sunday.

Abbas Ansari became MLA for the first time in 2022 by winning the election from the Mau Sadar assembly seat on an SBSP ticket under the Samajwadi Party-led alliance. The seat has now been declared vacant, the sources told PTI.

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA was sentenced to two years imprisonment by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday in the hate speech case of the 2022 polls.

Under the Representation of the People Act, there is a provision to terminate the membership of the legislative house if the court sentences a member to two years imprisonment or more.

SBSP is currently an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government and the party president is a cabinet minister in the state.

When contacted, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Sunday told PTI, "He (Abbas Ansari) is an MLA of the party. The court has pronounced its judgement. We will move the high court to present our side."

Following the disqualification of Abbas Ansari, the SBSP will have five MLAs in the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly.

According to the website of the Uttar Pradesh legislature, the other disqualified MLAs in the current 18th Legislative Assembly are Azam Khan (Samajwadi Party), his son Abdullah Azam Khan ( SP), Haji Irfan Solanki ( SP), Vikram Singh ( BJP) and Ramdular ( BJP).

According to the prosecution, during the last assembly elections, Abbas Ansari, who was contesting as an SBSP candidate, had threatened the Mau administration during a public meeting at Paharpur ground on March 3, 2022, saying he would "settle scores and teach them a lesson" after the elections.

Defence lawyer Daroga Singh told PTI videos that Ansari was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 189 (threat to cause harm to public servant), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, caste, place of birth, residence and language and spoiling the harmony), 171F (undue influence in election) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Singh said after hearing both sides, special MP/MLA court Judge K P Singh convicted Abbas Ansari on Saturday and sentenced him to two years each under sections 189 and 153-A, one year under section 506 and six months imprisonment under section 171-F. All the sentences will run simultaneously.

Abbas Ansari's father Mukhtar Ansari, who was incarcerated in Banda district jail, died of a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh in March 2024.

A five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat, he was behind bars in UP and Punjab since 2005. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him. He was sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts in Uttar Pradesh.

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