The fifth round of the staggered Uttar Pradesh polls on Saturday will again witness a strong presence of contestants with criminal antecedents and huge wealth.
LUCKNOW: Like the first four phases, the fifth round of the staggered Uttar Pradesh polls on Saturday will again witness a strong presence of contestants with criminal antecedents and huge wealth.
Of the 863 candidates in the fray for 58 assembly seats in this round, as many 115 face criminal charges while there are 61 multimillionaires.
The nine districts, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Sultanour, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot and Banda, going to the hustings in this phase also have a high crime record.
State capital Lucknow tops the list with 194 murders, 156 attempts to murder, 38 culpable homicides, 51 rapes, 150 kidnappings, including 136 women and eight dacoits, as per the 2005 report of the State Crime Record Bureau.
In all, the nine districts recorded 756 murders, 604 attempts to murder, 275 culpable homicides, 207 rapes and 413 kidnappings, including that of 337 women, besides 24 dacoits.
The Congress, once again, takes the cake for fielding the richest nominee, though the ruling Samajwadi Party tops the list with 18 multimillionaires in the fray.
It is followed by the Congress party's 14 candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 13 and the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) 8. However, there are 12 contestants who claimed to own no assets at all.
The belief that criminals taking refuge in politics are usually illiterates is also belied in this phase. Out of 115 such candidates, as many as 58 are graduates, postgraduates or hold other professional degrees. Also, the bulk of them are in the age group of 41 to 60 years.
This time the BSP tops the list of candidates with criminal records with as many as 26 such nominees. The ruling Samajwadi Party that topped the list in three of the four earlier phases stands a close second with 21 candidates facing criminal charges.
The BJP has 12 contestants with criminal backgrounds while the Congress trails behind with seven. The rest belong to either smaller political outfits or are independents.
Significantly, it is the lesser known Apna Dal, a caste-based party of Kurmis, whose nominee Thakur Prakash Singh is facing as many as 45 cases involving heinous crimes, says a study carried out by Election Watch, an NGO headed by retired director general of police IC Dwivedi.
Election Watch has called for a 'red alert' for seven constituencies where more than four alleged criminals are in the fray. These are Isauli, Sarojini Nagar, Bachchrawan, Chanda, Garwara, Mahona and Mallawan.
Interestingly, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, better known as Raja Bhaiya, who is widely known for his muscle power, has just four cases pending against him. However, his constituency, Kunda, about 140 km from here, has the largest number of outlaws in the fray.
The top 10 multimillionaires include Sudhir Halwasiya - Lucknow East, Shiv Prakash Misra - Kunda, Anil Pratap Singh - Pratapgarh, Ajay Kumar Tripathi - Lucknow, Sarojini Nagar, Arvind Tripathi 'Guddu' - Lucknow Cantonment, RP Singh alias Moti Singh - Patti, Amita Singh - Amethi, Ajay Pal Singh - Dalmau and Kunwar V
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