Afzal Ansari (born 14 August 1953) is an Indian politician of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...

and the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) of India for Ghazipur constituency,

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He won the 2004 general

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

election on the

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

ticket.

Early life

Afzal Ansari was born in Yusufpur– Mohammadabad town in

Ghazipur Ghazipur is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. The city of Ghazipur also constitute ...

district,

to Subhanullah Ansari and Begum Rabia. He received his school education. For higher studies, he enrolled in the local post-graduate college and completed Post Graduation from the

University of Gorakhpur DDU Gorakhpur University (simply known as University of Gorakhpur) is located in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The University of Gorakhpur is a teaching and residential-cum-affiliating University. It is about . from the d ...

. He used to sell tickets at the Prince Cinema Hall, at Mohamedabad, Ghazipur, where his younger brother Mukhtar Ansari also used to sell black tickets.

Family

Afzal Ansari's father Subhanullah Ansari was the chairman of

Nagar Palika Parishad In India, a Municipal Council (also known as Municipality, Nagar Palika, or Nagar Palika Parishad) is an Urban Local Body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. However, there are exceptions to that, as previously Nagar Palikas co ...

, Mohammadabad, and was elected unopposed. His grandfather

Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (25 December 1880 – 10 May 1936) was an Indian nationalist and political leader, and former president of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League during the Indian Independence Movement. One of the founders of t ...

served as the president (1926–1927) of the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcontin ...

, as well as the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

(INC), and was one of the founders of the

Jamia Millia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...

, New Delhi. Former

Vice President of India The vice president of India (IAST: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the ...

Mohammad Hamid Ansari Mohammad Hamid Ansari (; born 1 April 1937) is an Indian politician and retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who was the 12th vice president of India from 2007 to 2017. Ansari joined the IFS in 1961. In a diplomatic career spanning 3 ...

is Afzal Ansari's cousin. Afzal Ansari is married to Farhat Ansari since 26 October 1991 and the couple have 3 daughters. Ansari's elder brother

Sibgatullah Ansari Sibgatullah Ansari or Sibakatullah Ansari has served as a MLA representing Mohammadabad in Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh, India from 2007 to 2017. He is the elder brother of Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal Ansari Afzal Ansari (born 14 Au ...

and his younger brother

Mukhtar Ansari Mukhtar Ansari (born 30 June 1963) is an Indian gangster and politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate ...

both are politician and ex-MLA.

Political career

Member of Legislative Assembly

Ansari started his political career with the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

. He contested

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house filled by direct election using a single-member first-past-the-p ...

election in 1985 for the first time and defeated Abhay Narayan Rai from

with a margin of 3,064 votes. From 1985 to 2002, Ansari served five terms as

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

for

Mohammadabad Assembly constituency Mohammadabad, Ghazipur, Mohammadabad is a constituency of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, and a segment of Ballia Lok Sabha constituency, covering the city of Mohammadabad (also spelled Muhammadabad) in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pr ...

Member of Parliament

Afzal Ansari contested the 2004 Lok Sabha general election in 2004 on the

ticket and defeated

Manoj Sinha Manoj Sinha (born 1 July 1959) is an Indian politician serving as the 2nd and the current Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He served as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Communications and Minister of State for Railway ...

of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

with a margin of 226,777 votes. He contested the 2009 general election on the

(BSP) ticket for Ghazipur but lost to the

's Radhe Mohan Singh. After some political differences, Ansari left the Bahujan Samaj Party and founded a new political party called

Quami Ekta Dal Quami Ekta Dal, (Hindi: कौमी एकता दल; English language, English: ''Religious Unity Party''; abbreviated QED) was a regional party in Uttar Pradesh, India, founded in 2010. The QED's president was Afzal Ansari and was affiliat ...

and served as its Secretary-General before merging it with Bahujan Samaj Party. Ansari rejoined the BSP in 2019 and contested the general election in Gazipur; he won the seat, becoming the 17th Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur.

Positions held

Afzal Ansari has been elected 5 times as MLA and 2 times as

MP.

References

External links

Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Afajal 1953 births Living people People from Ghazipur India MPs 2004–2009 Samajwadi Party politicians Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Communist Party of India politicians from Uttar Pradesh Bahujan Samaj Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Quami Ekta Dal politicians Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1985–1989 India MPs 2019–present