For them, elections are a ticket to respectability and acceptability in society, apart from being a road to freedom.
For the half-a-dozen-odd contestants who are contesting from inside the jail, confinement does not affect their prospects or their campaign which is being efficiently managed by their supporters outside the jail. If at all, being behind the bars earns them the much-needed sympathy from voters.
Mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari is contesting his traditional Mau seat and also the Ghosi seat from behind the bars. He has been in jail since 2005 on charges of the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and had won the 2007 Assembly polls from inside the jail.
Mukhtar, currently lodged in Agra jail, is contesting on the banner of his newly-formed Qaumi Ekta Dal and, his elder brother, Afzal Ansari, is managing his campaign. Slogans like “Zalim sarkar badalna hai, Mukhtar Bhai ko nikalna hai” are doing the rounds in his constituencies and his Robin Hood image is being used to appeal to voters. Dreaded gangster Brijesh Singh, who is lodged in Ahmedabad jail, is contesting the Assembly polls from Syed Raza seat in Chandauli district under the banner of the little-known Pragatisheel Manav Party.
Brijesh, wanted in over 20 criminal cases, has a dedicated band of supporters. He started preparing for a political debut last year when he issued full page advertisements on all festivals in leading newspapers, conveying his wishes to the people in the constituency.
Ashok Singh, one of his campaigners, says confidently, “Brijesh Bhai ka naam hi kafi hai. He has got over 2,000 hand pumps installed in all villages in the constituency and always lends a helping hand in marriages of girls in poor families. All this will help him win the elections.”
Another dreaded gangster, Munna Bajrangi a.k.a. Prem Prakash Singh, is contesting the Mandiyahu seat in Jaunpur on an Apna Dal ticket and he is presently lodged in Tihar jail.
Bajrangi’s campaign is managed by over 500 motorcycles-borne boys — they were gifted the motorbikes last year — who move from village to village, house to house, seeking votes for their “Bhai”.
They are supremely confident of his successful political debut. Bajrangi, according to sources, is keeping a close watch on his election campaign from inside the Tihar jail and every development in the constituency is conveyed to him at the earliest.