Lucknow: As many as 109 candidates contesting
the second phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections have
criminal cases pending against them, according to a monitoring
group.
Of the total 337 candidates in fray for the second phase
of elections slated for February 11, Uttar Pradesh Election
Watch (UPEW) found that 118 (35 per cent) have criminal cases,
including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery and
extortion, pending against them.
Quami Ekta Dal nominee Mukhtar Ansari, who is contesting
from Mau and Ghosi constituency, has the maximum 15 criminal
cases registered against him.
SP`s Upendra, contesting from Phephana seat, have 11
criminal cases pending against him, while BSP`s Javed Iqbal,
contesting from Kushinagar seat, have five cases registered
against him.
SP tops the chart with 30 candidates having criminal
record, followed by BSP (23), BJP (20), Congress (19), Peace
Party (8) and JD(U) (12).
Of the 337 candidates, 138 are crorepatis, the UPEW said.
The average assets of 34 MLAs seeking re-election is Rs
2.74 crore and their average percentage growth in assets is
187 per cent.
The candidates with maximum assets is BSP`s Shah Alam
(Mubarakpur) having assets worth Rs 54.44 crore, followed by
Subhash of SP from Saidpur with Rs 35.32 crore and Narendra
Mani Tripathi of Congress from Gorakhpur (urban) with assets
worth Rs 27.88 crore.
Sarvesh Kumar Singh of BSP from Azamgarh has the highest
increase in asset worth Rs 8.81 crore, followed by Pramod of
BSP from Deoria with an asset increase of Rs 4.51 crore and
Rajkumar of BSP from Ghazipur constituency with an asset
increase of Rs 4.38 crore.
Uma Shanker of BSP has the highest annual income at Rs
5.54 crore followed by Shah Alam of BSP at Rs 1.03 crore and
Jetendra of BSP at Rs 1.02 crore.
A total of 166 candidates (49 per cent) of the 337
candidates have declared that they have never filed income tax
returns.
Of the 1,098 candidates contesting for the second phase,
only 76 candidates are women. BSP has fielded two women
candidates, followed by BSP (2), BJP (6), Congress (8) and SP
(5).
PTI
