Close to 21% of the probable candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are contractors while 13% are from the mining industry.

A study of the prospective candidates of different political parties by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that 18% of the probable candidates are builders, while 17% of them are engaged in running private educational institutes. As many as 15% of such candidates are engaged with chit fund companies. The report was released on Tuesday.

Sanjay Singh of UP Election Watch further stated that as many as 2,200 probable candidates had been surveyed across 60 assembly constituencies with feedback taken from nearly 10,000 voters.

"The state was divided into five regions--Bundelkhand, Awadh, Purvanchal (Varanasi belt and Gorakhpur belt) and western UP.Twelve assembly constituencies were considered from each of the region to conduct the survey ," Singh said. In the coming survey and reports, the exact profession of the candidate would be added to ensure greater transparency, he added.

"We also noticed it's a trend among prospective candidates to opt for these professions to generate money for poll expenses before they jump into the fray," Singh said.

The criteria for judging probable candidates included the quantum of advertisement heshe had released, number of hoardings installed and crowd sourced for rallies of different leaders.

The questions the respondents were asked are: What is the traditional and current profession of the probable candidate, whether heshe is contesting for the first time, whether heshe has done any social service, and the economic status of the candidate.

ADR CEO Maj Gen (retired) Anil Verma said that teams of volunteers were being constituted in 60 districts of the state to spread awareness among voters.