At least 147 candidates contesting in the second round of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have declared criminal cases against themselves while 113 are facing serious criminal charges, a new report says.
The Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have studied the self-sworn affidavits of 584 candidates out of 586, who are contesting in the second phase of the UP polls on February 14 when 55 constituencies in nine districts will see voting. These districts are Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Bareilly, Badaun, and Shahjahanpur.
“Out of 584 candidates analysed, 147 (25 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves…113 (19 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves,” the report released on Wednesday said.
Among the major parties, 35 out of 52 candidates reviewed from the Samajwadi Party and 23 out of 54 from the Congress have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Similarly, 20 out of 55 nominees analysed from the Bahujan Samaj Party, 18 out of 53 from the Bharatiya Janata Party, one out of three from the Rashtriya Lok Dal and seven out of 49 from the Aam Aadmi Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the report says.
Further, 25 from SP, 16 from Congress, 15 from BSP and 11 from BJP are facing serious criminal charges. One from RLD and six from AAP have also declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
At least six candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and one contestant has declared cases related to murder (section 302 of Indian Penal Code) against himself. A total of 18 contestants have declared cases related to ‘attempt to murder’ (IPC section 307), the ADR report says.
More than 50 per cent of the seats, 29 out of 55, are red-alert constituencies: where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Only 12 per cent of the total candidates, 69, are female.
The report also says that out of the 584 contestants, 260 (45 per cent) are crorepatis.
“The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates,” the report said. Among the major parties 52 candidates from the BJP, 48 from SP, 46 from BSP and two from RLD have declared assets valued at more than Rs 1 crore. In addition, 31 from the Congress and 16 from AAP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the second phase is Rs 4.11 crore. The average assets per candidate in SP is Rs 11.26 crore, for BJP it is Rs 9.95 crore, Congress Rs 8.20 crore and RLD Rs 6.20 crore. BSP nominees have average assets of Rs 5.74 crore and AAP Rs 1.60 crore.
The report says that 193 candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between class 5 and 12 while 305 have declared having an educational qualification of graduation or above. Five contestants are diploma holders while 67 have declared themselves to be just literate. Further, 12 candidates are illiterate and two have not given their educational qualification.
In terms of age, 206 contestants have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years while 309 say they are between 41 and 60 years. There are 68 candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 and 80 years while one has mentioned it as 83 years.
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