Rajat Sharma

Mayawati in a Catch-22 situation

On Thursday, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo inducted UP gangster Mukhtar Ansari and his relatives into her party and gave them tickets to contest assembly elections. The BSP supremo is now caught in a Catch-22 situation. On one hand, she badly needs Muslim votes, and one the other hand, she may face questions over inducting leaders from criminal background. When Mulayam Singh Yadav was at the helm of Samajwadi Party, Mayawati’s hopes of gaining Muslim votes in UP were dim. But now, she is a bit hopeful about gaining a section of Muslim votes by inducting Mukhtar and his partymen. One remembers the day when Mukhtar’s Qaumi Ekta Dal was ‘merged’ into Samajwadi Party, during the father-son imbroglio, and Mayawati had then remarked that Mulayam and his son, fearing electoral defeat, were taking the help of criminals like Mukhtar Ansari. On Thursday, however, the BSP supremo gave a clean cheat to Mukhtar Ansari. The conclusion: In politics, definitions of crime and corruption can change with time and requirements.

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