In phase five of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be held today, a report states that a total of 168 rich candidates are contesting, and 117 have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 612 out of 617 candidates from 75 political parties, including 6 national parties, 4 state parties, 65 unrecognized parties and 220 independent candidates, who are contesting in the fifth phase to be held today.

As per the report, out of 612 candidates, 168 (27 per cent) are rich candidates. A party-wise break up stating rich candidates within the parties show 43 out of 51 are from BSP, 38 of 51 from BJP, 32 of 42 from SP, 7 of 14 from the Congress, 9 of 30 from RLD and 14 of 220 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, the report released by Delhi-based ADR said.

The average assets per candidate contesting in the fifth phase of polls are Rs 1.56 crore.

ADR said that among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 14 INC candidates is Rs 4.40 crore, 51 BJP candidates (Rs 4.64 crore), 51 BSP candidates (Rs 4.16 crore), 42 SP candidates (Rs 3.48 crore), 30 RLD candidates (Rs 2.20 crore) and 220 independent candidates (Rs 44.96 lakh).

The three richest candidates contesting in the fifth phase are Ajay Pratap Singh of BJP with total assets of over Rs 49 crore, followed by Ameeta Singh of INC (over Rs 36 crore) and Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh also from BJP (over Rs 32 crore).

Here is a party-wise breakdown of rich candidates contesting in the phase 5 of Uttar Pradesh elections: