Rich and the dirty of UP polls phase 4

The Association for Democratic Reforms, in its report, analysed the candidates contesting the fourth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh. Vicky Nanjappa outlines the interesting findings

103 out 297 -- that is the number of candidates, who are contesting the fourth round of elections in Uttar Pradesh, with a criminal record.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, in its report, states that out of the 297 candidates analysed for the fourth phase, 103 candidates (35 per cent) declared criminal cases against them.

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Party wise figures: The Samajwadi Party has 29 criminal candidates out of 54 (54 per cent); Congress has 25 out of 56 (45 per cent); Bahujan Samaj Party has 18 out of 56 (32 per cent); Bharatiya Janata Party has 11 out of 56 (20 per cent); Peace Party has 7 out of 22 (32 per cent); Apna Dal has 5 out of 17 (29 per cent); Janata Dal-United has 5 out of 28 (18 per cent); Qaumi Ekta Dal's sole candidate has a criminal record, #8743 Bundelkhand Congress has 1 out of 6 (17 per cent).

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Criminal leaderboard: Among candidates of major parties who have declared criminal cases against themselves, Ravidas Mehrotra (SP), contesting from Lucknow Central constituency, has declared 17 criminal cases against him, including attempt to murder and 7 other serious offences.

Pushpendra Singh of the BSP, contesting from Rae Bareli constituency, has declared 9 criminal cases and 4 serious offences, including attempt to murder.

Congress candidate from Lucknow East, Ramesh Srivastava has declared 7 criminal cases against him, including attempt to murder.

BJP candidate from Sareni constituency, Dherendra Bahadur Singh has declared 8 criminal cases, including attempt to murder.

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Crorepatis galore: 47 per cent of the candidates (139 out of 297 in the fourth phase) are crorepatis.

The richest amongst them is SP candidate from Manikpur constituency, Shyam Charan Gupta with assets worth Rs 40.45 crore followed by BSP leaders Shiv Prakash Mishra Senani (contesting from Kunda) with Rs 30.05 crore and Sindhuja Mishra Senani (contesting from Vishwanath Ganj).

At the bottom of the rich list: Three candidates have declared assets of less than 1 lakh.

A total of 23 candidates out of 297 have declared liabilities of Rs 40 lakh or above.

Average assets per candidate partywise: BJP's average assets per candidate stood at Rs 1.5 crore; BSP Rs 3.17 crore; Congress Rs 2.31 crore, SP Rs 3.07 crore, JD-U Rs 34 lakh, Peace Party Rs 1.5 crore, Apna Dal Rs 68.89 lakh, Bundelkhand Congress Rs 1.49 crore, #8743 Qaumi Ekta Dal Rs 13.05 lakh.

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Income and tax assessment: Akhilesh Pathak (BJP) has the highest annual income at Rs 90.7 lakh followed by Mohammad Umar Khan (BSP) at Rs 88.35 lakh, Shyama Charan Gupta (SP) at Rs 77.36 lakh and Jamaluddin Siddiqui (SP) at Rs 42.33 lakh, as per their last filed Income Tax returns.

A total of 93 candidates (31 per cent) have declared that they have never filed income tax returns.

Of these, JD-U has the maximum number of candidates -- 17 (61 per cent) out of 28, followed by SP 17 (31 per cent) out of 54, BJP has 17 (30 per cent) out of 56, Congress has 14 (25 per cent) out of 56, Apna Dal has 11 (65 per cent) out of 17, Peace Party has 8 (36 per cent) out of 22, BSP has 6 (11 per cent) out of 56 and Bundelkhand Congress has 3 (50 per cent) out of 6 candidates who have not filed IT returns.

The top three candidates with maximum assets but who have never filed IT returns are Surendra Bahadur Singh of the Peace Party contesting from Sareni (total assets of Rs  11.82 crore), followed by Atul of Bundelkhand Congress from Baberu (Rs 7.09 crore) and Pushpa Devi of Apna Dal from Salon (SC) (Rs 4.26 crore).

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Other interesting facts: A total of 201 candidates (68 per cent) are graduates or with higher educational qualifications.

Out of 966 candidates contesting in the fourth phase, only 91 (9 per cent) candidates are women -- BSP has 6 out of 56, BJP 5 out of 56, Congress 8 out of 56 and SP 7 out of 54.

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