The Uttar Pradesh assembly on Sunday disqualified Mau MLA Abbas Ansari, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, following his conviction in a hate speech case.“The Mau assembly constituency has now been declared vacant,” official sources told news agency PTI.On Saturday, a special MP-MLA court convicted and sentenced the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) legislator to two years imprisonment in a 2022 hate speech case.The ‘hate speech’ caseAccording to the prosecution, during the previous Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Ansari, the SBSP candidate from the Mau Sadar seat, had threatened the district administration during a public meeting at the Paharpur ground on March 3, 2022. He said he would “settle scores and teach them a lesson” after the elections.As per defence lawyer Daroga Singh, Ansari was subsequently booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 189 (threat to cause harm to public servant), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, caste, place of birth, residence and language and spoiling the harmony), 171F (undue influence in election) and 506 (criminal intimidation).Singh added that after hearing both sides, special MP/MLA court Judge KP Singh convicted the SBSP MLA, and sentenced him to two years each under sections 189 and 153-A; one year under section 506, and six months under section 171-F. All the sentences will run simultaneously. Ansari has also been fined Rs 2,000.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.Ansari became MLA for the first time in the 2022 assembly elections, which the SBSP contested as a member the Samajwadi Party-led alliance.However, the OP Rajbhar-led party is currently an ally of the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government, and Rajbhar himself is a cabinet minister there.Mukhtar Ansari, too, represented the Mau Sadar assembly seat for a long time. Lodged in the Banda district jail, he died of a cardiac arrest in March last year.
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