Altogether 16 per cent of the candidates contesting in the second phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh in 11 lok Sabha seats are of criminal background. Similarly 35 per cent of the candidates in phase-11 are crorepatis. There are 150 candidates in fray for the second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh in 11 seats on April 17.
According to statistics disclosed here on Wednesday afternoon by Uttar Prdesh Election Watch(UPEW), 24 out of the 147 candidates, whose affadavits were scrutinised found having criminal cases against them. A total of 52 candidates of the 147 candidate have declared assets worth over Rs one crore, who are contesting in the second phase elections. Around 23 per cent or 33 candidates of the 146 candidates in the first phase of lok Sabha elections in 10 seats of west UP going to polls on Thursday are of criminal antecedents and have declared criminals cases against them. There are 65 crorepatis in the first phase of polls in the state.
UPEW convenor Sanjay Singh told reporters that in the second phase, 18 candidates have serious criminal charges against them including murders, attempt to murder, rioting and kidnapping. Surprisingly three serious criminals antecedents are contesting from Kheri seate alone. BSP tops the list as of the total 11 candidates 5 are of criminal antecedents, followed by 3 out of 11 of the BJP, 2 out of 10 each of the Congress, Aam Admi Party(AAP) and Peace Party and one out of 10 of Samajwadi Party.
BSP candidate from Kheri, Arvind Giri has 11 cases against him including murder and kidnapping in which charges have been framed against him in 8 cases and in one case of murder he has been convicted life term by the lower court. CPI(Ml) candidate Krishna Addhikari has attempt to murder case against her along with five other cases including rioting while Ajay Kumar of BJP, both from Kheri seat, has 3 cases against him including murder and rioting.
Shiv Sena candidate from Amroha Sarvesh Kumar Saini has four criminal cases against him including a case of woman harrassment. RlD candidate Rakesh Tikait from Amroha and Ms Sarika of AAP from Nagina seat too have criminal cases against them. Four constituencies in the second phase have atleast three criminal background candidates of major political parties in the fray. The seats are— Kheri, Amroha, Bareilly and Nagina.
Of the total 52 crorepatis in the second phase of elections in UP, the BSP has the highest when all their 11 candidates are crorepatis, followed by 10 out of 11 candidates of the BJP, 9 out of 10 of the SP, 7 of the 8 candidates of Congress and 3 out of 10 of AAP are crorepatis. The average assets of the candidates in phase two in 11 lok Sabha seats is around Rs 3.78 crores. BJP candidates have an average assets worth Rs 23.12 crore, BSP have average of Rs 5.08 crore, SP has Rs 2.44 crores, AAP has Rs 2.04 crore and Congress have Rs 17.78 crores. Kanwar Singh Tanwar of BJP from Amroha has the maximum assets worth Rs 178 crores followed by Nawab Kazim Ali Khan of the Congress from Rampur of Rs 57 crores and BJP’s Meneka Gandhi from
Pilibhit having an assets worth Rs 37 crores. A total of 81 candidates did not disclose their Income Tax return including 8 crorepati candidates. 47 candidates also did not reveal their PAN numbers.
In the educational qualification, highest 28 candidates are graduate, 26 post graduates, 2 doctorate while one is an illiterate. Interestingly of the total 147 candidates verified, one each is in the age group between 25 to 30 years and between 81 to 110 years.