As many as 156 candidates contesting in the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022 have declared criminal cases against themselves, of whom 121 are facing serious charges, a report by Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms has said.

The report has analysed self-sworn affidavits of 615 candidates out of 623 who are contesting in Phase 1 of Uttar Pradesh elections to be held in 58 constituencies spanning 11 districts on February 10.

“Out of 615 candidates analysed, 156 (25%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves…121 (20%) have declared serious criminal cases,” the report said.

Further, at least 12 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and out of these, one candidate — RLD’s Mohammad Yunus contesting from Bulandshahr — has declared cases related to rape (IPC Section 376).

A total of six candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section 302) against themselves, while 30 candidates have declared cases related to ‘attempt to murder’ (IPC Section 307).

More than 50% constituencies (31 out of 58) are red alert constituencies — where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Siwalkhas constituency in Meerut and Kheragarh in Agra have six candidates each with criminal cases, while Hapur’s Dholana, Ghaziabad’s Loni, Shamli’s Thana Bhawan and Meerut constituencies have five candidates each with criminal cases.

In terms of political parties, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has the highest percentage – around 75% — of candidates with criminal cases, followed by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

A total of 21 out of 28 candidates analysed from SP, 17 out of 29 candidates (59%) analysed from RLD, and 29 out of 57 candidates (51%) analysed from the BJP have criminal cases.

Further, 21 out of 58 candidates (36%) analysed from the Congress and 19 out of 56 candidates (34%) analysed from the BSP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Eight out of 52 candidates (15%) analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases.

In terms of candidates with serious criminal cases, SP leads with 17 out of 28 candidates (61%) declaring such cases against themselves. As many as 15 out of 29 candidates (52%) analysed from RLD, 22 out of 57 candidates (39%) from BJP, 11 out of 58 candidates (19%) from Congress, 16 out of 56 candidates (29%) from BSP and five out of 52 candidates (10%) from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the report said.

Just 12% of the total candidates contesting in the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections are women.

At least 73 candidates have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years, while 214 have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years. A total of 328 candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years.

The report added that 239 candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between Class 5 and 12, while 304 candidates have declared having an educational qualification of Graduate or above.

“Seven candidates are Diploma holders and 38 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate,” the report said, adding that 15 candidates are illiterate and 12 candidates have not given their educational qualification.

The report also said that out of the 615 candidates analysed, 280 (46%) are crorepatis. At least 97% of the candidates from BJP and RLD are crorepatis.

BJP’s Amit Agarwal, contesting from Meerut Cantt, has the highest declared assets in Phase 1. The average of assets per candidate contesting in the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections is Rs 3.72 crore.

“The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties, 28 (97%) out of 29 candidates analysed from RLD, 55 (97%) out of 57 candidates analysed from BJP, 50 (89%) out of 56 candidates analysed from BSP, 23 (82%) out of 28 candidates analysed from SP, 32 (55%) out of 58 candidates analysed from Congress and 22 (42%) out of 52 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore,” the report added.