UP polls: Of crorepatis & history-sheeters

The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded the maximum number of candidates with criminal background followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the first and second phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, an election monitoring organisation has claimed.

While Samajwadi Party topped the chart of crorepati candidates in the first phase of polls it was its arch rival BSP in the second, Uttar Pradesh Election Watch said.

Analysing the affidavits filed by candidates with nominations in the first two phases, the organisation claimed that BSP topped the list of candidates with criminal background as 33.33 per cent of them were facing such charges followed by BJP (27.03 per cent) and SP (26.5 per cent).

Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal are also not far behind with 20.17 per cent, and 18.31 per cent of their candidates are facing criminal charges, former state DGP and convenor of UPEW, IC Dwivedi told media persons in Lucknow.

This data is based on the affidavits filed by candidates with their nomination papers in the first and second phases covering 120 constituencies in 23 districts, he said.

Though all parties have a good number of crorepati candidates, BSP topped the list having 35.83 per cent such candidates followed by SP(30.77), BJP (30.63 per cent), Congress (19.33) and other parties  (5.64 per cent), he said.      

He said the average assets of SP and BSP candidates were Rs 1.64 crore and Rs 1.36 crore respectively.

Interestingly, there are a number of candidates who did not even have permanent account number, Dwivedi said.

We found that 42.11 per cent Congress candidates, 36.21 per cent BSP, 40.35 per cent BJP and 37.50 per cent SP candidates in the second phase did not have PAN card, he said.

As per the data collected by UPEW, the average asset of SP candidates was the highest at around Rs 1.64 crore followed by BSP with over Rs 1.36 crore, Congress about Rs 1 crore and BJP Rs 1.15 crore in the second phase.

Amar Singh Yadav (BSP), contesting from Sikandra Rao had highest number of 11 criminal cases pending against him followed by eight against an Independent candidate from Muradnagar and seven against RLD's Madan Bhaiya from Khera constituency.

Dwivedi, however, claimed that as per the affidavit submitted by the state government in a case in the High court, Madan Bhaiya had 59 criminal cases followed by Rajpal Singh Saini of BSP from Morna with 26 cases and Ramvir Upadhyay contesting from Hatras of BSP with 12 pending cases.      

There is a possibility that these candidates have concealed their cases in their affidavit filed during nominations, he said.