Lucknow,

02 June (HS): The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) announced on Monday that

it will run in the Mau by-election after Abbas Ansari was banned from the Uttar

Pradesh Legislative Assembly due to his conviction in a hate speech case. Ansari,

the son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, won his maiden MLA

election in 2022 from the Mau Sadar assembly constituency on an SBSP ticket as

part of the Samajwadi Party-led coalition. The SBSP MLA was condemned to two

years in jail by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday. The seat has been declared vacant. The SBSP

has subsequently shifted sides and is now an ally of the incumbent BJP

administration, with the party's president serving as a cabinet minister in

Uttar Pradesh.

This

was our seat. It was contested (in the

2022 assembly elections) over our party symbol.

It was battled over our insignia. It is only right that our party fights

the seat, SBSP leader Om Prakash Rajbhar told reporters. The Representation of

the People Act states that if an MLA is sentenced to two years or more in jail,

his or her membership in the legislative body is revoked. When asked if the

SBSP will file a court case for its disqualified MLA, Rajbhar stated, If

he does, the party will support him.

Currently, the High Court is on vacation and will be closed for a month.

Following Ansari's disqualification, the SBSP will have five MLAs in the

403-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Rajbhar

stated that he had met with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home

Minister Amit Shah to discuss holding direct elections for the district panchayat

chairman and block heads. He stated that a proposal is being developed to hold

these elections directly by popular vote in order to prevent the use of money

and muscular force. Currently, district

panchayat chairman are elected by district panchayat members, whereas block

members elect the head of village heads.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi