Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA from Mau assembly constituency Abbas Ansari is the latest to join the list of disqualified MLAs from Uttar Pradesh.
Son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, he was stripped of his membership of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after he was sentenced to two years in jail in a hate speech case, official sources said on Sunday.
Abbas Ansari was MLA from Mau assembly constituency. The seat has now been declared vacant, the sources told PTI.
Under the Representation of the People Act, there is a provision to terminate the membership of the legislative house if the court sentences a member to two years or more.
Abbas Ansari became MLA for the first time in 2022 by winning the election from the Mau Sadar assembly seat on an SBSP (Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party) ticket under the Samajwadi Party-led alliance.
SBSP is currently an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government and the party president Om Prakash Rajbhar is a cabinet minister in the state.
According to the website of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the other disqualified MLAs of UP in the current 18th Legislative Assembly are Azam Khan (Samajwadi Party), his son Abdullah Azam Khan ( SP), Haji Irfan Solanki (SP), Vikram Singh ( BJP) and Ramdular (BJP).
Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in October 2022 after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a 2019 hate speech case. He represented the Rampur assembly constituency.
Azam Khan's son and SP Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in February 2023, days after a court sentenced him to a two-year imprisonment in a 15-year-old case. He represented the Suar seat in Rampur district.
The case against Abdullah Azam Khan, the son of Azam Khan, pertained to a dharna on a highway after his cavalcade was stopped by police for checking following an attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur on December 31, 2007.
SP MLA Irfan Solanki was disqualified after he, his younger brother and three others were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with setting fire to a woman's house in a bid to grab her land. He represented the Sisamau assembly constituency in Kanpur.
BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly with effect from October 2022 after he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case. Saini was an MLA from Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar.
BJP MLA from Duddhi assembly constituency in Sonbhadra district Ramdular Gond was disqualified in December 2023 after being sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl in 2014.
Earlier in the 17th Legislative Assembly, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP MLA from Bangarmau in Unnao, was disqualified in 2020 after being convicted in a rape case. Sengar had already been expelled by the BJP.
BJP MLA from Gosaiganj in Ayodhya district Indra Pratap Tiwari was also disqualified in December 2021 after he was convicted and sentenced by a court in a 28-year-old fake marksheet case.
On April 19, 2019, Hamirpur BJP MLA Ashok Chandel was disqualified from the assembly after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case.
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