UP Election 2022: Of 623 candidates in third phase, 135 have criminal cases, most in Samajwadi Party

21 candidates of SP, 20 of BJP, 18 of BSP, 10 of Congress and 11 of AAP have declared `serious criminal cases` against themselves.

New Delhi: As many as 135 candidates in the fray in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections' third phase have criminal cases against them, according to a new analysis report.

The Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday (February 15, 2022) released an analysis report where they analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 623 candidates out of 627 contesting in the next phase of UP polls on February 20.

Among the major parties, 30 out of 58 candidates analysed from the Samajwadi Party, 25 out of 55 candidates analysed from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 23 out of 59 candidates analysed from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 20 out of 56 candidates analysed from Congress and 11 out of 49 candidates analysed from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

21 candidates of SP, 20 of BJP, 18 of BSP, 10 of Congress and 11 of AAP have also declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

On the basis of the number of criminals contesting elections, 26 out of the 59 constituencies in this phase have been declared Red Alert constituencies.

245 crorepatis contesting in third phase

The analysis report states that out of the 623 candidates, 245 (around 39%) candidates are crorepatis. Among the major parties, 52 candidates from SP, 48 from BJP, 46 from BSP, 29 from Congress and 18 from AAP have declared assets valued at more than Rs 1 crore.

The richest candidate, Yashpal Singh Yadav of the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, has total assets worth Rs 70 crores.

Devraj, an independent candidate, is the poorest with total assets of Rs 10,000.

The average assets per candidate contesting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 Phase III is Rs 2.82 crores.