UP phase 5 polls: 40 faces with criminal records

Uttar Pradesh having a total of 80 parliamentary constituencies will enter in the fifth and final phase of poll on May 13 for the remaining 14 Lok Sabha seats. According to the data released by National Election Watch (NEW), as many as 40 out of the total 203 candidates in the electoral fray have criminal records.

The report further revealed that almost all major parties have fielded candidates with criminal records, with top four parties being Samajwadi Party -SP (8), Bharatiya Janata Party - BJP (6), Bahujan Samaj Party-BSP (4) and Congress (3).

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Among the 40 tainted contestants, 19 are charged with heinous crimes like murder (IPC 302), attempt to murder (IPL 307), causing death by negligence (IPC 304 A), theft (IPC 379), extortion (IPC 384), etc. Out of these SP has five, BSP and Congress have two candidates each, while BJP has one candidate charged with these crimes.

Nine constituencies, including Amroha (5), Aonla (4) and Bareilly (4), have been declared Red Alert where three or more candidates have been charged with criminal offences.

To the list of millionaires (Crorepatis), there are 50 in phase 5 elections: Congress with 12, followed by BJP and BSP with 8 each, and SP with 6 crorepatis. Among major parties, the average asset per candidate for Congress is 5 Crores, BSP 5 crores, BJP 4 crores and SP 3 Crores.

Among other details, only 15 female candidates (7.4% out of 203 candidates) are contesting against 188 male candidates and 85 (or 41.9%) are holding graduate degrees or above.