UP's final phase poll has maximum number of tainted candidates

Lucknow, May 4 (UNI) The final and the last phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on May 8 will have the dubious distinction of having 162 candidates with criminal antencedents.

A total of 934 candidates are in the fray.

Altogether, 882 candidates of criminal antecedents are contesting in all the 403 assembly seats in the state, with the maximum number of criminals in fray in the last phase.

UP Election Watch, a voluntary organisation, today released the list of such candidates. It said ruling Samajwadi Party leads the list of criminal in Phase-VII with 32 criminal candidates out of the total 55 in fray, follwed by BJP-Apna Dal combine 19 BSP (20) and Congress 16 candidates.

Pawan Pandey of Apna Dal, contesting from Akbarpur seat, has 63 cases pending against him -- highest among the criminals contesting in the entire UP assembly polls.

Former UP Director General of Police (DGP) and convenor of the organisation I C Dwivedi said here that taking into account all the seven phase elections in the state, major political parties account for 59 per cent of the candidates with criminal antecedents, while 22 per cent belong to other parties and 19 per cent are Independents.

Amongst the major political parties, ruling SP has the highest criminal candidates with 38 per cent followed by BSP 32 per cent, BJP and alliance 29 per cent, Congress 22 per cent and RLD 14 per cent.

UP Election Watch said 51 candidates of phase-VII have declared their assets of more than Rs one crore and of them, seven even do not have PAN cards.

UNI