Mau (Uttar Pradesh):With the Enforcement Directorate arresting SBSP MLA from Mau Abbas Ansari, party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Sunday distanced himself from the legislator, claiming he was Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's pick. The SBSP had contested the 2022 UP Assembly elections in alliance with the SP on 12 seats and won six seats, including Mau, but the two parted ways after the BJP's victory in the polls.
"Abbas Ansari is not our MLA. Actually, he is (an MLA) of Akhilesh Yadav. He is being termed as an MLA of our party, because he had taken the election symbol of our party, and had contested it. Abbas moves around (in vehicles) with the flag of the SP," Rajbhar told reporters when asked about Ansari.
The ED had arrested Abbas Ansari, 30, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, after a long questioning session at the agency's office in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh in a money laundering case being investigated against his family, officials had said on Saturday.