New Delhi, Jan 26 (Agencies): Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and will contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from Mau Sadar, party chief Mayawati said on Thursday.
The BSP will also field Ansari's son Abbas and brother Sigbatullah from Ghosi and Mohammadabad Gohna, respectively.
Mukhtar Ansari, a founder of the Quami Ekta Dal (QED), is the current MLA from Mau Sadar. He has been a member of the BSP before.
Mayawati said he'd been inducted into the party since charges against him haven't been proved, ANI reported. She added that her party didn't have any "criminal elements."
Last year, the QED merged with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was unhappy with the move - given Ansari's criminal antecedents, and the fact that the merger was formalised due to his uncle's Shivpal's initiative.
And after Akhilesh took over as the SP's national president and forged an alliance with the Congress, the QED's two sitting MLAs - Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Sigbatullah - were denied tickets.
Mukhtar Ansari won his first assembly election as a BSP candidate in 1996, and the next two as an independent.
In 2007, he rejoined the BSP and unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi against BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi.
After the BSP expelled him in 2010 for criminal activities, he formed the QED with his brother Afzal. He won from Mau in 2012.