By Our Staff Reporter
Roorkee, 30 Oct: BSP MLA from Manglaur assembly constituency, Sarwat Karim Ansari passed away in a hospital in Noida today. Ansari had been keeping unwell for some time and had been under treatment of a Mumbai based hospital. Governor Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd) and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami have expressed grief and shock over the death of Ansari. BSP Supremo Mayawati too has condoled the death of her party MLA. Several MLAs and political leaders cutting across political lines have condoled the passing away of Ansari.
Later in the day, the State Cabinet also paid homage to Ansari before its meeting held this afternoon at the Secretariat, here, today. The Cabinet observed two minutes of silence as tribute to the BSP MLA before the meeting.
It may be recalled that Ansari, aged 66 years, had been admitted to Fortis Hospital in Noida after developing some medical complications. He was on a ventilator for the past three days. He passed away during treatment at the hospital. He had been recovering from a Cardiac Bypass surgery which he had undergone some time ago. However, he reportedly developed some complications including a high fever, three days ago, and was admitted again to the hospital. In view of his serious condition, he was put on ventilator and he breathed his last this morning.
As soon as the news of the demise of Mangalore MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari reached his assembly constituency, a wave of mourning spread among BSP workers. He was an arch political rival of Congress leader Qazi Nizamuddin, whom he had defeated twice. He had also lost twice to Qazi. In a close fight in the 2022 Assembly Elections, Ansari had won the Manglaur constituency defeating Qazi Nizamuddin for the second time in his political career, which has been cut short by his untimely demise. He had also defeated Nizamuddin in the 2012 Assembly elections. However, he had lost to Nizamuddin in the 2017 assembly elections, an election in which Nizamuddin had won for the first time as a Congress leader. It may be recalled that in the past, Ansari was a Congress leader while Nizamuddin was a BSP leader. However, in the 2012 election, Nizamuddin had switched loyalty to the Congress owing to his closeness with veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat, forcing the then Congress leader Sarwat Karim Ansari to switch to BSP in order to contest the assembly election. Ansari had managed to defeat Nizamuddin on the BSP ticket. Nizamuddin, however, had managed to avenge his defeat in the 2017 assembly elections but was again defeated by Ansari in the 2022 assembly elections. It is being claimed by the sources in BSP that a family member of Ansari might be fielded in place of Sarwat Karim Ansari, who had in the past decade gained close proximity to BSP Supremo Mayawati.
