Three fourth of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates who will test their fates at the ballot boxes in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday have criminal cases registered against them. This is the highest of any party which is fighting eight seats in the by-elections.
BJP’s ally Rashtriya Lok Dal, which is fighting the ninth seat, has also fielded a candidate with a criminal case to his name.
Nine seats in Uttar Pradesh will go to the bypolls on Wednesday. Except one seat, all seats have their incumbent MLAs getting elected to the Lok Sabha recently. The Sishamau candidate is in prison and thus necessitated the election in the seat.
The Samajwadi Party has 44 per cent criminal candidates while the Bahujan Samaj Party has 22 per cent.
Another notable trend is that the parties that have contesting a single seat have picked a candidate with registered criminal cases. This includes the Sarvjan Sukhay Party, Pichhra Samaj Party, Sarva Samaj Janata Party, Sabhi Jan Party and the Peace Party.
Around 48 per cent candidates are crorepatis, with the BSP and the Samajwadi Party leading the tally.
The richest candidate in this election is Shuchismita Maurya of the BJP who is contesting from Mirzapur and has assets worth over Rs 50 crore. She is also the candidate with the highest liability of over Rs six crore. The next two places are occupied by Samajwadi Party candidates Sumbul Rana from Muzaffarnagar with assets worth over Rs 40 crore and Singh Raj Jatav from Ghaziabad whose net worth exceeds Rs 28 crore.
The three canidates with the lowest net worth are independents. Rupesh Chandra from Ghaziabad has just Rs 18,000 to his name.
The most common qualification of candidates is graduate or equivalent with 54 per cent candidates reporting it in their affidavits. The most common age group of those contesting is 41 to 60 years. A miniscule 13 per cent of those in the fray are women.
