Mukhtar Ansari is an Indian criminal-politician from Maunath Bhanjan or Mau in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Most recently he won the Mau seat in the Uttar Pradesh Elections, 2007 as an Independent, while in prison on charges of murdering rival BJP Member of the Legislative Assembly Krishnand Rai. He is one among many such criminal-politicians in Uttar Pradesh. Mukhtar was initially a member of the Makhanu Singh gang, which clashed with Sahib Singh's gang over Ghazipur's lucrative contract work mafia, estimated at more than Rs.100 crores a year[1]. Eventually, Makhanu Singh killed Sahib Singh, resulting in brutal reprisals. In October 1996, when Mukhtar Ansari had pending charges in criminal cases from murder, extortion, kidnapping, etc., he was inducted into politics by Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. Subsequently, the Bihar Police obtained a confession from a member of his gang that Ansari was behind the kidnapping and murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad treasurer, Nand Lal Rungta, in January... more