Attack or mere politics?

VARANASI: Speculations regarding beginning of fresh gang war and shift of the battle field of mafia dons to Varanasi from Ghazipur started proving true with the attack on Samajwadi Party's Jharkhand unit in-charge Sudhir Singh on Sunday night.
It might be mentioned here that Sudhir Singh had lodged an FIR with the Delhi police in 2007-08, claiming life threat from mafia don Brijesh Singh.On the basis of the same FIR, the Delhi police had started searching for the don and succeeded in nabbing him at Bhubaneswar (Orissa) in January 2008. After Brijesh was brought to the Central Jail, Sudhir Singh had made a hue and cry that he was still under threat from the don. The issue was forgotten with the beginning of the race of mafia dons of East UP for the ruling party's ticket to contest the Parliamentary polls.
To ensure a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket for Brijesh, his nephew and BSP MLA from Dhanapur Sushil Singh could be found busy in wooing senior party leaders and chief minister Mayawati. However, his efforts could not yield any positive result. But, Mukhtar Ansari, the mafia don-turned-MLA and arch rival of Brijesh, surely succeeded in getting the BSP ticket to contest the parliamentary poll from Varanasi. Despite these developments, Sushil did not stop his efforts to ensure the blessings of BSP chief for his uncle.
But, before he could succeed, the Sudhir Singh episode took place. And, the preparations of the police to book Sushil, Brijesh and five others under the Gangster Act hinted of doom not only for his uncle in BSP, but even his own existence in party became difficult.
These developments, however, did not surprise those who had started raising their eyebrows on the large-scale transfers and postings of administrative and police officers just before the issuance of notification for the Lok Sabha polls by the Election Commission.
Even the local Congress MP, Rajesh Mishra, had claimed on Sunday that he was preparing a list of all those administrative and police officers, who had been transferred here from Ghazipur, Mau and Azamgarh to (allegedly) effect the poll process. The claim was sufficient to hint that motive for posting of officials from districts known as the citadel of Mukhtar Ansari was being analysed by his rivals. The haste shown by the police to initiate the process of booking of the accused persons for the attack on Sudhir Singh under the Gangster Act allowed the locals to start guessing whether the SP leader was really attacked or lent his shoulder to others for targeting Brijesh lobby.
Police are claiming that the matter will be clear only after a probe, but the atmosphere in the city is sufficient to indicate that panic button has been pushed.