Mau saw trouble on Thursday after MLA don from Mau Sadar, Mukhtar Ansari, failed to turn up for campaigning. His supporters ran amok, targeting policemen who tried to control them with crude bombs. Later, a case was filed against 12 people.

Ansari, who has a string of cases against him, is currently in Agra jail.

On Monday, a court in Delhi granted him an 11-day parole to campaign for Mau Sadar and Ghosi seats, from where he is contesting the assembly election.

But following the advice of Ajay Kumar Sharma, district government council (DGC), Agra, the jail authorities appealed against the parole.

Ansari has just too many cases pending against him, Sharma said — 11 in Uttar Pradesh, plus the one in Delhi. The last case against him was registered in 2007.

Under the circumstances, parole granted by a single court cannot be executed, he added.

Ansari had contested the last assembly polls as an independent candidate after he lost the Lok Sabha polls on a BSP ticket.

Later, with brothers Afzal and Sigbatullah he launched their own political party — Quami Ekta Dal.

The Ansari brothers have considerable clout in Mau and its adjoining regions.

Ansari had decided to contest from Mau Sadar and Ghosi after several Muslim-dominated areas of Mau Sadar were merged with the Ghosi assembly constituency post delimitation.

His current jail stint is for alleged involvement in the murder of BJP MLA from Mohammadabad, Krishnanand Rai in 2005. Ansari is not the only politician with a criminal record in Uttar Pradesh. In the first phase of elections, 109 of 284 candidates have criminal cases against them as per the National Election Watch report.

The Samajwadi Party has so far fielded 28 tainted candidates — a record number