In the third phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls slated for February 19, the BJP has given tickets to more candidates with criminal and serious criminal cases against them than the SP, an analysis of the data shows.
There are total of 826 candidates in the fray in the third phase, out of whom affidavits of 813 candidates were analysed by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Of these, 110 candidates have declared criminal cases against them, while 82 have serious criminal cases against them, the ADR analysis showed.
Of these, seven candidates have declared cases related to murder, 11 have cases of attempt to murder, five have cases related to kidnapping and six candidates have cases related to assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty.
Interestingly, the percentage of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates with criminal cases (31 per cent) and serious criminal cases (22 per cent) is higher than that of the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates in the same categories — 22 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively).
The BJP has been accusing the ruling Samajwadi Party of unleashing "gundaraj" (lawlessness) in Uttar Pradesh in its election pitch.
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Also, there are 21 "red alert" constituencies where three or more candidates with criminal cases are contesting.
Out of the 813 candidates, 31 per cent are crorepatis (multi-millionaires).
Again, the BJP has the highest percentage of such candidates (90 per cent), followed closely by the SP (86 per cent) and Bahujan Samaj Party (84 per cent).
The richest candidates, however, come from the Samajwadi Party.
Anup Gupta with total assets worth over Rs 42 crore is contesting from Maholi on the SP ticket. The third richest candidate — Seema Sachan from Sikandra seat — with over Rs 29 crore assets is also from the SP.
