Lucknow

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is preparing to terminate the UP Assembly membership of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA and mafia don Mukhtar Ansari.

Ansari represents the Mau constituency in the UP assembly.

UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna told reporters that a legal opinion is being sought in the matter.

"If any member remains absent from the House for over 60 days, then in that case, his membership can be cancelled as per the rules. If someone moves a petition asking for cancellation of his membership then the government will decide on the future course of action," he said.

Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit also said that the matter was under consideration.

Ansari was lodged in Punjab's Rupnagar jail since January 2019 in connection with an extortion case and was brought back to Banda jail on Wednesday following a Supreme Court order.

He has been in jail since October 2005 but has been taking part in the legislative proceedings with the permission of the court.

He also won the elections in 2007, 2012 and 2017 from inside the jail.

However, after the Yogi Adityanath government came to power, it strongly opposed the move to grant permission to jailed legislators to participate in legislative proceedings.

Ansari, in 2019, was shifted to Punjab and has not taken part in assembly proceedings thereafter.

The BSP MLA is facing 52 cases in the state and elsewhere, and 15 of them are in the trial stage.