Altogether 16 per cent of the candidates contesting in the fourth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh in 14 lok Sabha seats are of criminal background.Similarly 31 per cent of the candidates in phase-IV are crorepatis.
There are 233 candidates in fray for the second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh in 14 seats on April 30.According to Uttar Prdesh Election Watch(UPEW) data released here on Wednesday afternoon, 36 out of the 232 candidates, whose affidavits were scrutinized were found to be having criminal cases against them. A total of 73 candidates of the 232 candidate have declared assets worth over Rs one crore, who are contesting in the fourth phase elections.
In all four phases, 17 per cent of the 693 candidates are of criminal background while 36 per cent of the candidates are crorepatis.UPEW convenor Sanjay Singh told reporters that in the fourth phase, 25 candidates have serious criminal charges against them including murders, attempt to murder, rioting and kidnapping. BSP tops the list as of the total 13 candidates 9 are of criminal antecedents, followed by 7 out of 14 of the BJP, 4 out of 14 each of the Congress, 5 out of 14 of the BSP and one out of 12 of the Aam Admi Party(AAP). BJP candidate from Unnao, Shakshi Maharaj has eight cases against him including a murder charge while six candidates have attempt to murder cases against them and four have kidnapping cases.
SP’s Rakesh Sachan contesting from Fatehpur has 8 cases against him including attempt to murder while BJP candidate from Jhansi and former Madhya Prdesh Chief minister Uma Bharat has 13 cases against her including two cases of attempt to murder. Other candidates who have criminal cases against them are BJP’s Bhairon Prasad Mishra contesting from Banda, SP’s Arun Shanker Shukla from Unnao, Mohammad Nasir Khan of Peace Party from Kanpur and R K Singh Patel of BSP from Banda. Congress candidate Vivek Kumar Singh contesting from Banda too have 5 cases against him along with his rival Bal Kumar of SP from the same seat who has 9 cases. Six constituencies in the fourth phase have at least three criminal background candidates of major political parties in the fray. The seats are —Kanpur, lucknow, Banda, Mohanlalganj, Unnao and Jhansi.
Of the total 73 crorepatis in the fourth phase of elections in UP, the SP has the highest when all their 14 candidates are crorepatis, followed by 13 out of 14 candidates of the BSP, 12 out of 14 of the BJP, 13 of the 14 candidates of Congress and 5 out of 12 of AAP are crorepatis. The average assets of the candidates in phase four in 14 lok Sabha seats is around Rs 2 crores. BJP candidates have an average assets worth Rs 3.04 crore, BSP have average of Rs 6.14 crore, SP has Rs 6.05 crores, AAP has Rs 3.32 crore and Congress have Rs 7.84 crores. Annu Tandon of Congress from Unnao seat has an assets worth over Rs 63 crores followed by BSP’s Anuradha Sharma from Jhansi of Rs 31 crore and actor Syed Jawad Ahmed Jafri of AAP from lucknow Rs 26 crores. Shiv Sena’s Sunil Massey contesting from Jhansi has the lowest assets of Rs 3113 followed by Al-Hind Party candidate Ganga Singh from Jalaun seat of Rs 8500 and Shreshthatam Rashtra Party candidate Swami Dayal from Dhaurahra of Rs 21,000.
A total of 115 candidates did not disclose their Income Tax return including 7 crorepati candidates. 52 candidates also did not reveal their PAN numbers. In the educational qualification, highest 122 candidates are graduate while 101 are just intermediate pass and 3 are illiterate.