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Uttar Pradesh created a record of sorts -- out of the 2,195 candidates that contested the election, 795 had criminal records against them, reports Vicky Nanjappa
Akilesh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh may have taken up the task to promote a clean party, but the fact is that 26 of the 48 cabinet ministers analysed have a criminal record, which is 54 per cent of the ministers.
The affidavits of the newly appointed cabinet ministers that was analysed by the National Election Watch suggests that 54 per cent ministers i.e. (26 out of 48 analysed) have self declared criminal cases as per their affidavits filed during the recently concluded assembly elections. Nine or 19 per cent of ministers out of the 48 analysed have declared serious IPC charges like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity registered against them.
Among these, 26 ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves. The following Ministers have declared the highest number of criminal cases against them:
1) Mehboob Ali (of SP from Amroha) has declared 15 cases against himself including charges related to attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery etc.
2) Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya (IND MLA from Kunda) has declared 8 criminal cases against himself including attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity.
3) Arvind Kumar Singh (of SP from Ram Nagar) has declared 3 criminal cases including charges of attempt to murder.
4) Manoj Kumar Paras of SP from Nagina constituency has declared a rape charge in his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission at the time of his nomination. The others in the list who are in the top ten are Vinod Kumar, Rajendra Singh Rana, Manoj Kumar Paras, Ram Karan Arya, Jagadish and Bhawat Saran.
The crorepatis:
The affidavits that have been analysed show that 38 out of the 48 cabinet ministers in the Yadav cabinet are crorepatis.
Kunwar Anand Singh of Samajwadi Party from Gaura constituency has the highest assets (Rs 18.30 crore) among the Uttar Pradesh cabinet ministers, followed by Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh of SP from Bah constituency with assets worth Rs 14.79 crore. Raja Bhaiya an IND MLA from Kunda Constituency has assets worth Rs 7.11 crore among the Uttar Pradesh cabinet ministers.
The average asset of a minister in Uttar Pradesh works out to be 2.79 crore. Balram Yadav, member of legislative council in Uttar Pradesh, with assets worth Rs 16.31 lakhs, has the lowest assets among all the ministers analysed in Uttar Pradesh.
Among the 48 ministers analysed, only 1, Aruna Kumari of SP from Bilhaur, is a women minister.
Record:
Uttar Pradesh had created a record of sorts. Out of the 2,195 candidates that contested the election, 795 had criminal records against them. This means that 35 per cent of the candidates who contested the elections had criminal records against them.
SP had 199 out of 401 (50 per cent), Bharatiya Janata Party had 144 out of 397 (36 per cent), Congress had 120 out of 354 (34 per cent), Bahujan Samaj Party had 131 out of 403 (33 per cent), Janata Dal(United) had 46 out of 220 (21 per cent), Peace Party had 55 out of 209 (26 per cent), Apna Dal had 22 out of 76 (29 per cent), Qaumi Ekta Dal had 13 out of 38 (34 per cent), Rashtriya Lok Dal had 16 out of 46 (35 per cent), Bundelkhand Congress had 5 out of 33 (15 per cent) candidates with pending criminal cases.
After the final result, there were 189 MLAs with a criminal record, which means 47 per cent of the UP assembly had criminal candidates. The number shot up since 2007 when there were 140 such candidates. Out of these 189 MLAs, 98 (24 per cent) have serious criminal cases against them. In 2007, out of the 140 such MLAs 78 faced serious charges.