There are millionaires and criminals galore in almost all the political parties for the third phase of the state assembly election on April 18. Of the total 859 candidates in the fray in Rohalekhand and Farukhabad regions, there 118 candidates with criminal background. Similarly, 60 candidates have declared assets more than Rs 1 crore, said the UP Election Watch report released here on Saturday.
Chief of the Election Watch Ishwar Chand Dewivedi, a retired IPS officer, said that the SP, which has fielded 56 candidates in this phase, had 20 candidates against whom criminal cases were pending. Similarly, the BSP has 17, BJP 17, Congress 13 and the Rashtriya Lok Dal has nine candidates. Dewivedi said there were 26 other candidates facing criminal charges.
He said in Amorha, Bareilly Cantt, Bilaspur, Dadraul, Moradabad, Nawabganj, Rampur and Sunha there were more than four candidates in each segment facing criminal cases. There are 14 millionaires in the SP, 10 in the BSP, nine in the Congress, six in the BJP, four in the RLD and 11 independents. Interestingly, of the total 859 candidates 626 nominees were without PAN numbers.
The richest candidate was BM Singh of the Congress contesting from Puranpur in Pilibhit. His declared assets are worth Rs 374.80 crore. Others are Praveen Singh Aron of the Congress from Bareilly (Rs 22.72 crore), DP Yadav of the RPD from Sahaswan (Rs 14.42 crore), Umlesh Yadav of the RPD from Bisauli (Rs 14.35 crore), Nawab Kazim Ali Khan of the SP from Swartada (Rs 12.12 crore), Khalid Pervez of the BSP from Badaun (Rs 6.18 crore) and others.
The poorest with no assets are Sounath (Nagina), Kartar Singh (Amorha), Inderpal Nanda (Faridpur) and Ved Prakash (Bareilly).
The richest candidate was BM Singh of the Congress contesting from Puranpur in Pilibhit. His declared assets are worth Rs 374.80 crore. Others are Praveen Singh Aron of the Congress from Bareilly (Rs 22.72 crore), DP Yadav of the RPD from Sahaswan (Rs 14.42 crore), Umlesh Yadav of the RPD from Bisauli (Rs 14.35 crore), Nawab Kazim Ali Khan of the SP from Swartada (Rs 12.12 crore), Khalid Pervez of the BSP from Badaun (Rs 6.18 crore) and others.
The poorest with no assets are Sounath (Nagina), Kartar Singh (Amorha), Inderpal Nanda (Faridpur) and Ved Prakash (Bareilly).
Among the top 10 candidates facing criminal charges are BSP’s Shanawaz (7 cases, Bijnore), RPD’s DP Yadav (6, Sahaswan), IEMC’s Chaman Prakash Kashyap (5, Dataganj), Congress’ BM Singh (5 cases, Puranpur), Independent Surendra Singh (5, Seohara), Independent Ramdas (5, Baheri) BJP’s Harpal Singh (4, Gangeswari), BJP’s Ram Saran Verma (4, Bisalpur), IEMC’s Mohd Saleem (four cases, Nawabganj). There are 7 other candidates — Rasheed Ahmad (Congress, Dhampur), Mehmood Ali (Ind, Amroha), Sagheer Saeed (Ind, Moradabad), Azhar Javed (Ind, Barielly Cannt), Mahendra Pal Singh (Ind, Kamalganj), Shauqat (NLHP, Amroha) and Shiv Charan (RLD, Sunha) who are facing four criminal cases each.