Lucknow: It is no secret that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati are poles apart politically and ideologically, but recent developments vis-a-vis mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's QED have brought out their contrasting personal image also among UP voters.
If Akhilesh took up cudgels with his family seniors to stop the entry of Ansari in Samajwadi Party to ward off charges of patronising criminals, Mayawati had no qualms in allowing merger of Quami Ekta Dal (QED) in her party for a bigger electoral gains.
Interestingly, Akhilesh, said to be heading a party criticised for sheilding outlaws, had set the trend of shrugging off such an image on the eve of 2012 polls by putting his foot down and foiling the move to usher in another don, DP Yadav into the party fold.
The move had enhanced his image as "uncompromising" on criminalisation of politics and cleansing his party of elements with unsavoury brush with the law.
The decision had proved fruitful in 2012 with his party getting clear victory and perhaps it guided his latest move in checking Ansari's entry into his party.
Mayawati who, on the other hand, has the image of running the state with an iron hand, has not batted an eyelid in allowing merger of QED with BSP.
She went a step ahead by giving three tickets to Ansari's family without caring for what her politically adversaries will be saying.
Mayawati had earned the image of a "strict administrator" by acting tough against officials and her own partymen but her sole concern this time has been mastering caste equations to win elections.
Despite criminal antecedents, Ansari's family is held in high esteem in some eastern UP districts and has considerable sway over some dozen odd assembly seats in Mau, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Ghazipur districts that have a sizeable Muslim population.
And this is what Mayawati it looking for, especially when SP and Congress have come together.
If some 5,000 to 10,000 votes of the Ansari family in different constituencies come Mayawati's way, the party with its core base will be ahead of rivals in snatching victory, BSP leaders feel.
Even if BSP fails to win these seats as an outcome of polarisation of votes, it will be happy to spoil the chances of Samajwadi Party, they believe.
Besides, Mayawati will be looking for an opportunity to send a signal to Muslims across the state that Akhilesh is anti-Muslim and it is only her party which is the true well wisher of the community.
At the time of announcement of the merger, Mukhtar's elder brother Afzal had announced that he will work to expose anti-Muslim Akhilesh while Mayawati had claimed that the image of the Ansari family was being "maligned" by political rivals by framing them in "false cases".
She will, however, face flak from her political adversaries.
The merger of the Ansari family is likely to be exploited by BJP and SP to counter Mayawati's claims of providing strict law and order but the party is hopeful that this move will counter any possible consolidation of Muslims in Azamgarh and Varanasi divisions behind the Congress-SP alliance.
"Ironically, Mayawati who makes tall claims on law and order has no problem in taking help of criminals and somehow come to power. This only goes on to prove how desperate she is for power and can go to any extent to become the chief minister," BJP General Secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
Mayawati hopes that Ansaris will given an edge to her party in Ghazipur, Mau, Varanasi, Ballia, Chandauli and Azamgarh where BSP had won only six of the 40 seats.
The party had failed to open its account in Ghazipur district and won one each in Mau, Azamgarh and Ballia.
In 2012, QED had contested 43 seats and polled 4,17,552 votes, fetching an average 5.32 per cent votes on each seat, which BSP leaders think is enough to swing the outcome in an assembly seat.
QED had got from 4,000 to 70,000 votes on as many as 12 seats - Ghosi, Mau, Saidpur, Mohammadabad, Ballia Nagar, Zamania, Ghazipur, Mughalsarai, Varanasi South, Sevapuri, Varanasi Cantonment and Varanasi North.
In 2012, Mukhtar had won Mau where he got 70,210 votes against the BSP's candidate who got 64,306 votes.
In Ghosi, QED finished third with 44,645 votes after SP nominee polled 73,688 votes and BSP candidate's 58,144 votes.
QED and BSP together would have emerged victorious.
