Around 26 per cent of the candidates contesting in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh have criminal cases registered against them while 46 per cent are crorepatis.

The details of the candidates with criminal records and the crorepaties were disclosed in a report released here on Monday by the Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The UPEW and the ADR carried out a detailed analysis of the affidavits of all 100 candidates from 10 constituencies of Agra, Aonala, Badaun, Bareilly, Etah, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Hathras, Mainpuri and Sambhal.

Chief Convener of the UP Election Watch ADR Sanjay Singh said there are a lot of crorepati candidates in the third phase of elections as 46 out of 100 i.e. 46 per cent candidates are crorepatis.

The report said 10 out of 10 (100 per cent) candidates of the BJP, nine out of nine (100 per cent) of the SP, nine out of nine (100 per cent) of the BSP, one out of three (33 per cent) of the Peace Party one in two (50 per cent) of the Swaraj Bharatiya Nyaya Party, and one (100 per cent) of the Jan Shakti Ekta Party are crorepati.

The average asset of the candidates is Rs 6.94 crore. Among the main parties, the average asset of the 10 candidates of BJP is around Rs 11.74 crore, of the nine SP candidates is Rs 47.67 crore, and of BSP candidates is Rs. 9.45 crore. The average asset of the three Peace Party candidates is Rs 1.13 crore.

Among the SP candidates, Praveen Singh Aron, who is contesting from Bareilly, has assets worth around Rs 182 crore while Akshay Yadav, who is contesting from Firozabad, has assets worth Rs 136 crore. SP candidate Dimple Yadav from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat has assets worth around Rs 42 crore.

If we talk about the top three candidates who have declared the least assets, Hasanuram Ambedkari’s names figure prominently. He is contesting as an independent candidate from the Agra Lok Sabha seat. His total assets are just Rs 12,000.

In second place is Kailash Kumar. Contesting as an Independent from Etah, Kumar’s assets have been declared as Rs 19,000. The third is Ravi Kumar, who is contesting as an Independent. He has declared his total assets as Rs 21,000.

Santosh Srivastava, state convenor of UP Election Watch, said the candidates who declared criminal cases against themselves are 25 (25 per cent) out of a total of 100 candidates who declared criminal cases against themselves. Of these, 20 (20 per cent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Here is party-wise details of candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves: The BJP has four out of 10 (40 per cent), the SP has five out of nine (56 per cent), the BSP has four out of nine (44 per cent) and one out of two (50 per cent) of the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party.

Among the candidates who have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, 30 per cent are from the BJP, 33 per cent from the SP, 44 per cent from BSP, and 50 per cent the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party.

As for the criminal cases, Congress candidate from Fatehpur Sikri Ramnath Singh Sikarwar has 17 criminal cases registered against him while Chaudhary Bashir, a BSP candidate from Firozabad, has nine, and Pawan Kumar of the Log Party has three criminal cases registered against him.

In the third phase, 33 out of 100 (33 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification between class 5 and 12 while 52 (52 per cent) of them have declared their educational qualification as graduation and above.

One Candidate has declared his/her educational qualification as a diploma. 12 candidates have declared their educational qualification as literate while two have declared as illiterate.

As for the age of the candidates in the third phase, 28 out of 100 (28 per cent) have declared their ages between 25 to 40 years, while 54 (54 per cent) have declared their ages between 41 to 60 years. A total of 18 (18 per cent) candidates have declared their ages between 61 to 80 years.

Eight or 8 per cent of women candidates are in the fray in the third phase of the UP Lok Sabha elections.