Lucknow: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother Sigbatullah Ansari and former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Ambika Chaudhary joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday (August 28, 2021).
SP National president Akhilesh Yadav congratulated Sigbatullah and Chaudhary saying, "I congratulate Sibgatullah Ansari and his colleagues for joining the party. Your joining will send a message not only in Purvanchal but across the state that the SP government will be formed in 2022... I welcome Ambika Chaudhary to the party and I also welcome all the companions who came with him to the party. We all will work together that the SP government will come in 2022," he said.
A visibly emotional Chaudhary, called it a rebirth. "Today is like a rebirth for me, I want to say a lot but there is a lack of words. Akhilesh has compassionately asked me to include my son and colleagues in the party," he said.
"There is a desire in my mind which I want to make my resolution and want Akhilesh to be the CM. I will do anything to fulfill my resolve. We have a target till the 2022 assembly election," Choudhary said.
Earlier in June, Chaudhary had quit BSP soon after his son Anand Chaudhary was declared as an SP candidate for the post of chairman of district panchayat. Before joining BSP, Chaudhary was a member of the Samajwadi Party.
Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari were expelled from the BSP in the year 2010 and formed Quami Ekta Dal with his brothers in 2010 that merged with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2016.
However, the merger was opposed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and was discontinued after Akhilesh became the national president of SP. In 2017, Mukhtar Ansari was taken back into BSP by its party chief Mayawati stating that the allegations against him have not been proved.
