BSP MP Afzal Ansari loses Lok Sabha seat after conviction in 2007 Gangsters Act case

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari, brother of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was disqualified from Lok Sabha on Monday following his conviction in a 2007 Gangsters Act case.

The Ghazipur MP-MLA court last week sentenced Afzal to four years of prison term and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on him. The court also convicted Mukhtar Ansari in the same case and sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and slapped a penalty of ₹5 lakh on him.

According to the Representation of the People Act (RPA), any member will be disqualified from House if convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more.

“Consequent upon his conviction…Afzal Ansari, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Ghazipur Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh, stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 29 April, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” according to a Lok Sabha secretariat notification.

The Gangster Act case was registered against the Ansari brothers in connection with the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in November 2005 and the kidnapping and murder of VHP leader Nand Kishore Rungta in January 1997.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently lost his Lok Sabha membership after he was convicted in a 2019 criminal defamation case over the “Modi surname” remark and sentenced to two years in jail. Gandhi moved to Gujarat high court after a sessions court in Surat declined his plea to stay the conviction.