Mukhtar Ansari will fight LS polls from Varanasi if Modi does

Ballia (UP), Mar 12: Jailed

MLA Mukthar Ansari will fight Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi if

prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi contests from the same seat, his family said.

"There is a lot of pressure from workers on Mukhtar to challenge Modi and contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi. He will contest from the state on Quami Ekta Dal (QED) ticket, if Modi does so," former MP and Mukhtar's brother Afzal Ansari said.

Mukthar Ansari lost to BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi in 2009 on BSP ticket.

Afzal, who looks after the affairs of QED, said that Mukhtar will also contest from Ghosi parliamentary constituency.

53-year-old Mukhtar, a sitting MLA from Mau and an accused in the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai is currently lodged in an Agra jail.

He had contested the 2009 LS elections on a BSP ticket from Varanasi and lost to BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.

The court had on May 3, 2012 charged Ansari under section 3(4) of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for being a member of an organised crime syndicate run by his co-accused Prem Prakash alias Munna Bajrangi, who had lost Assembly election from Jaunpur last year.

PTI