Despite serious concern shown by all organisations including Supreme Court to stop criminals from taking part in one of the biggest democratic exercises of the world, still around 23 per cent of the 146 candidates in the first phase of lok Sabha elections in 10 seats of Western Uttar Pradesh have criminal backgrounds.
The list also included three of Aam Adami Party (AAP) having criminal past.Interestingly 33 candidates have declared criminal cases against them in which 26 or 18 per cent have admitted cases of murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping, dacoity and robbery against them.
Polling for the first phase of elections in 10 lok Sabha seats would be held on April 10.According to statistics released by Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW) here on Wednesday, a total of 20 candidates have declared multiple serious IPC counts against them. Yogesh Kumar of AAP from Saharanpur constituency tops the list with 12 cases registered against him followed by Dr Himanshu Singh (AAP) from Meerut constituency with 10 cases and Shahnawaj Rana of SP from Bijnor constituency, with 9 criminal cases.
Party wise Congress tops the list with 4 out of 6 candidates fielded by it having criminal cases gainst them, BJP’s 6 and SP’s 5 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Two candidates are facing murder charges. They are BSP’s Kadir Rana from Muzaffarnagar constituency and Pradeep Kumar Jatav also of BSP from Bulandshahr constituency. Six Candidates with cases related to Attempt to Murder while one candidate SP’s Shahnawaj Rana from Bijnor constituency has declared charges of of rape (IPC Section 376) against him. Kadir Rana is also accused in the Muzaffarnagar riot case.
UPEW has identified seven Red Alert Constituencies out of 10 constituencies going to polls in phase one on April 10 which will have at least 3 candidates with declared criminal cases. These seats are Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Meanwhile in another date released by UPEW, around 45 per cent of the 146 candidates in the first phase polls scheduled on April 10 are crorepatis. Surprisingly, all the 10 candidates of BSP, all six of the Congress and nine out of 10 of the BJP and SP,8 out of 10 of the AAP and 3 out of 4 of RlD are crorepatis. There are 65 crorepatis in the first phase of polls in the state, claimed UPEW.
The average asset per candidate contesting from UP — Phase 1 in lok Sabha 2014 elections is Rs7.42 crores. Among major parties, the average asset of 10 BSP candidates is Rs62.23 crores, 10 SP candidates have an average assets of Rs11.11 crores, 10 BJP candidates have Rs7.56 crores and 10 AAP candidates have average asset of Rs5.41 crores.
Eleven candidates have more than Rs20 crore worth of assets. The top three candidates with highest assets are : Malook Nagar of BSP contesting from Bijnore( Rs289 crore+), Mohammad Shahid of BSP contesting from Meerut(Rs198 Crore+) and Satish Kumar of BSP from Gautam Buddha Nagar seat(Rs59 Crore+)
A total of 13 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 1 lakh among the 146 candidates. The three candidates with lowest assets are Nitin Independent from Ghaziabad seat, Keshav Choudhury( Independent) also from Ghaziabad seat and Sanjay Kumar( Independent) from Aligarh seat have asset worth only Rs1000 each
A total of 24 candidates out of 146 contesting in Phase - 1 in UP have not given value for at least 1 immovable assets that they have declared in their affidavits while 7 out of 146 contesting candidates have declared dues to various Government departments.
58 candidates out of 146 have declared liabilities out of which 15 candidates have declared liabilities above Rs50 lakhs. Satish Kumar of BSP from Gautam Budhha Nagar constituency has declared liabilities of Rs20.14 crores followed by Mohammad Shahid of BSP from Meerut constituency with liabilities of Rs10.38 crores and Shahnawaj Rana of SP from Bijnor constituency declaring total liabilities of Rs5.43 crores.
UPEW said that a total of 83 candidates have declared their income tax details out of which 9 candidates have declared a total income of more than Rs50 lakh.Surprisingly 63 candidates or(43%) candidates out of 146 analysed have not declared income tax details while 34 candidates analysed have not declared their PAN details. Malook Nagar of BSP from Bijnor constituency has declared the highest total income of Rs13.11 crores followed by Zafar Alam of SP from Aligarh constituency with a total income of Rs2.08crores and Mahesh Sharma of BJP from Gautam Budhha Nagar constituency with a total income of Rs1.83 crores.