Ansari brothers likely to hop blue elephant

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari met BSP czarina and chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday night fuelling speculation over the political course the Ansari brothers, who wield influence in pockets of eastern-UP, may take in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Though Afzal Ansari admitted that he had met Mayawati, he did not reveal his course of action.

Afzal Ansari, an MP from Gazipur, has been shunned by the SP which has gone ahead and announced the candidature of Radhey Mohan Singh from the Gazipur constituency for the coming Parliamentary polls. BSP sources said that Afzal is seeking the BSP ticket to contest the Parliamentary elections from his Gazipur constituency and has also put up the case of his brother independent MLA from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari for Varanasi constituency as a BSP candidate.

Mukhtar Ansari had recently said that he will contest as an independent candidate from the Ghosi parliamentary seat. But now the Ansari brothers seem to have changed their strategy.

While the two brothers are all set to join the BSP, the third Ansari sibling, Sibqatullah Ansari, an SP MLA from Mohammadabad in Gazipur, may also choose to desert the SP, according to a senior BSP source.

Earlier Afzal Ansari had shunned the Samajwadi Party���s strategy and voted against the UPA government during the trust vote last year.