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)