Why we the voters like mafia dons
One of the many anomalies of this election in UP and Bihar is the politicians’ attitude to the law and order issue. Two of the best known criminal gang leaders will be spending the next month in jail wondering how they have fared in April 16 polling.
Mayawati fielded Mukhtar Ansari from the prestigious Varanasi constituency. He has now been in jail for over three years facing murder charges.
In Bihar, Mohammed Shahabuddin has been found guilty so he is not standing from his traditional constituency of Siwan. But Lalu had such faith in the gang leader’s appeal that he gave the ticket to his wife.
These are just the two highest profile candidates who the voters describe as Mafia dons.
Advani said he would not allow candidates with criminal backgrounds.
When I asked a senior BJP leader about this, he didn’t claim the candidate was innocent, but maintained he had not committed any crime for 15 years.
A BJP voter told me, “ Rama Kant would not even kill a fly.” But while supporting Mafia candidates, politicians also realise that law and order is very much on voters’ minds. In UP, Mayawati knows that one of the reasons she swept to power in the state assembly election was the poor record of the last government, headed by Mulayam Singh, in preventing crime.
“ This has led to a big change in the law and order situation that is going down very well with the voters,” he said. But Nitish’s candidate in Vaishali, Vijay Kumar Shukla, is facing more than 40 cases of murder and robbery.
Explaining her choice of Ansari for Varanasi, Mayawati said, “ He protects the poor, who are otherwise defenceless, and anyone who defends the poor I don’t consider a don.” Ansari does have a reputation as the Robin Hood of Purvanchal. A member of Mayawati’s party in Ghazipur told me, “ There is a craze for Mukhtar. If anyone has a problem with a ration card or something like that, one phone call from him and the problem is solved.” In one of the poorest parts of Varanasi, a silk- dyer told me he was voting for Ansari because he is the man whose name alone gets work done.
This is one reason why politicians do forget their principles and risk perpetuating their law and order problems by choosing Mafia as their candidates.
They know the government machinery they are running is oppressive rather than responsive, they know the public hate this, and they know officials do respond to the Mafia out of fear.
Some of the press in eastern UP and Bihar have suggested that the politicians have got it wrong this time, that the public has now come to see that the price of supporting the Mafia is too high.
If that proves to be true, then the politicians may decide to withdraw their support too and instead take effective action against the Mafia and their gangs. But the Mafia have money and muscle, and both could tempt some politicians to continue supporting them.
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