The Congress has announced its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh. The National Election Watch, a nationalwide campaign working on electoral reforms says that out of the 24 candidates announced as part of the first list, four have criminal records.
However with the initial list available, the Samajwadi Party tops the list as of now with 6 candidates with a criminal history and pending criminal cases. The Congress is second with 4 while the Bharatiya Janata Party is at third with 3 such tainted candidates.
The criminal charges include criminal intimidation with death threat and assaulting public servants.
Commenting on the list of candidates for Uttar Pradesh, Mr I C Dwivedi, former Director General of Police of UP and coordinator of UP chapter of NEW, said, "The presence of politicians with criminal background has always been high in Uttar Pradesh and has reached to such an extent that both the legislative assembly and the parliament are unable to function because of these elements. The indiscipline in the Houses has reached new heights as can be seen from recent UP assembly and Parliaments sessions and we must ensure that only clean and capable candidates are elected to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly."
List of tainted candidates as per the released first list
Congress candidates in Uttar Pradesh
Raj Babbar, Fatepur Sikhri, Rioting, unlawful assembly and assaulting public servant
Surendra Prakash Goyal, Bansgaon, rioting and causing damage to public property
Jagdambika Pal, Dumariyaganj, Mischief, rioting, defacing a place of worship
Ratna Singh, Pratapgarh, offences under The Representation of Peoples' Act
BJP candidates
Ramakant Yadav, Azamgarh, criminal intimidation and assault
Bhanu Pratap Singh Varma, Jalaun, providing false information
Lallu Singh, Ayodhya, causing hurt, destruction of evidence, dacoity
Samajwadi Party
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mainpuri, criminal trespass, forgery, criminal conspiracy
Rashee D Masood, Sahranpur, substantive offence under the PC Act
Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh, Allahabad, rioting, criminal trespass and intimidation
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Khaisergunj, rioting and attempt to murder
Deepak Kumar, Unnao, rioting, attempt to murder, dacoity, wrongful restraint
Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel, rioting, attempt to murder,
