BSP MP Afzal Ansari disqualified as member of Lok Sabha

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari was disqualified on Monday as member of Lok Sabha after he was convicted and sentenced to four-year jail in a criminal case.

Ansari was born on August 1, 1958, in Ghazipur. He is the younger brother of Mukhtar Ansari, who is also a politician and a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Ansari, the Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur, was sentenced to four years in jail by an MP/MLA court on Saturday. His brother, criminal-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was also convicted in the same case and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 along with the kidnapping and murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.

"Consequent upon his conviction...Afzal Ansari, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Ghazipur Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh, stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 29 April, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951," according to a Lok Sabha secretariat notification.

Afzal Ansari was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ghazipur constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Indian general election. He has also served as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Mohammadabad constituency in 1996 and from the Mau constituency in 2007.

Ansari has been involved in various controversies, including criminal cases such as murder, kidnapping, and extortion. He was arrested in 2005 in connection with the murder of BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai and was acquitted in 2010 due to lack of evidence. In 2019, he was booked for allegedly assaulting a contractor in Ghazipur.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently lost his Lok Sabha membership after he was convicted in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced to two years in jail.