Of the 360 candidates analysed for the 6th phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, 128 candidates or 36 per cent of them have criminal cases registered against them.
In the 2007 assembly elections, only 27 per cent candidates had criminal cases registered against them, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch.
Not surprisingly, every party has given tickets to candidates who have declared criminal cases. Samajwadi Party has 31 such candidates out of 68, Bharatiya Janata Party has 30 out of 67, Bahujan Samaj Party has 20 out of 68, Congress has 16 out of 34, Rashtriya Lok Dal has 11 out of 32, Janata Dal - United has 10 out of 34, Peace Party has 9 out of 46 and Quami Ekta Dal has 1 out of 3 candidates with pending criminal cases.
Of the 128 candidates, 52 face serious criminal charges such as murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rape, robbery, extortion etc. SP has 15 such candidates, BJP has 8, BSP has 7, INC has 5, RLD has 6, JD-U has 4 and Peace Party has 7 such candidates.
Reportage: Vicky Nanjappa
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More criminals, more crorepatis in the fray
JD-U candidate Man Veer Singh, who is contesting from Jewar, has the maximum number of criminal cases against him. He has declared 31 criminal cases including 14 charges related to murder. He is followed by Pushpa Sharma (BSP, Mathura constituency) who has declared 19 criminal cases including two charges related to murder and four charges related to theft.
Shri Bhagwan Sharma (SP, Debai constituency) has declared 13 criminal cases including one charge related to murder and one charge related to rape.
As many as 210 candidates out of the 360 analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch are crorepatis. This year 58 per cent of the candidates are crorepatis, while in 2007 only 22 per cent had so much money.
The wealthiest candidates in the sixth phase are Congress leader Najir Ahmed who is contesting from Agra South constituency with assets worth Rs. 141.39 crore followed by Vinod Kumar of BSP from Debai with Rs. 45.19 crore and Mahesh Kumar Sharma of BJP from Noida constituency with assets worth Rs. 37.45 crore.
Only six candidates have declared assets of less than 1 lakh and three candidates declared assets of less than Rs 11,000.
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More criminals, more crorepatis in the fray
Among major parties, the average asset per candidate for BSP is Rs 4.81 crore, for Congress is Rs 8.73 crore, for RLD is Rs 4.02 crore, for SP is Rs 3.78 crore, for BJP is Rs 3.62 crore, for JD-U is Rs 75.01 lakh, for Peace Party is Rs 56.11 lakh, for Bundelkhand Congress is Rs 11.49 lakh and for Quami Ekta Dal is Rs 2.86 lakh.
While 52 per cent candidates (186 of 360) are graduates, only 8 per cent (85 of total 1,103) are women.
For the 49 re-contesting MLAs analysed, the average asset in 2007 was Rs 1.26 crores.
The average asset of these MLAs as declared in 2012 is Rs 3.38 crore.
Average asset growth for these re-contesting MLAs is Rs 2.12 crore. Average percentage growth in assets for these MLAs is 168 per cent.
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More criminals, more crorepatis in the fray
BSP leader Lakhi Ram Nagar recorded the highest increase in assets -- Rs.11.31 crores (from Rs 8.42 crore in 2007 to Rs 19.73 crore in 2012), followed by RLD leader Pooran Prakash with an asset increase of Rs. 6.63 crore (from Rs 27.1 lakhs in 2007 to Rs 6.9 crore in 2012) and BSP leader Madhusudan Sharma from Bah constituency with an asset increase of Rs. 4.95 crores (from Rs 3.66 crore in 2007 to Rs 8.61 crore in 2012).
The highest percentage increase (3776 per cent) has been for Satveer Singh Gujjar of BSP from Dadri constituency. His assets rose from Rs 2.51 lakh in 2007 to Rs 97.48 lakh in 2012. He is followed by Pooran Prakash of RLD with a percentage increase of 2456 per cent (Rs 27.01 lakh in 2007 to Rs 6.9 crore in 2012) and Hazi Jameer Ullah of SP with an increase of 1,681 per cent (Rs 6 lakh in 2007 to Rs 1.06 crore in 2012).
Among the candidates analysed for the sixth phase, Congress leader Najir Ahmed has the highest annual income of Rs 22.69 crore followed by SP leader Zafar Aalam at Rs 1.55 crore, Congress leader Anil Kumar Tanwar at Rs 1.43 crore and BJP leader Mahesh Kumar Sharma at Rs 1.38 crore as per their last filed income tax returns.
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More criminals, more crorepatis in the fray
A total of 105 candidates (29 per cent) out of the 360 candidates analysed by the Uttar Pradesh Election Watch have declared that they have never filed income tax returns.
JD-U has 18 such candidates, Peace Party has 22, BJP has 15, RLD has 6, Congress has 6.
The top three candidates with maximum assets who have never filed IT returns are BSP leader Zakir Ali, with highest total assets of Rs. 16.95 crore, followed by SP leader Syed Himayat Ali from Anupshahar with assets of Rs 9.87 crore and SP leader Mazahir Hasan of Saharanpur Nagar with Rs 6.52 crore.
As many as 54 candidates have not declared their PAN details. Peace Party has 16 such candidates, JD-U has 10, SP has 7, BJP has 6, Bundelkhand Congress has 5, BSP has 4,Congress has 3 and RLD has 2.
The top three candidates with maximum assets who have not declared their PAN card details are BSP leader Jagat Singh from Siwalkhas constituency with assets with worth Rs 3.66 crore followed by Congress leader Surendra Kumar Munni from Muradnagar with assets worth Rs 2.72 crore and BJP leader Vikram Singh from Saharanpur with Rs 2.47 crore respectively.
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