Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, 2022: Consolidated Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other details of Candidates - Phase 1 to 7

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Mar 3, 2022, 5:06:15 AM3/3/22

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Press Release

3rd March, 2022

Dear Friends,

The Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 4406 out of 4442 candidates, who are contesting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections Phase I to VII. Out of 4406 candidates analysed, 1209 are from National parties, 921 are from State parties, 1266 are from registered unrecognized parties and 1010 candidates are contesting independently.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/uttar-pradesh-assembly-elections-2022-phase-1-phase-7-analysis-criminal-background-financial

Summary and Highlights

Party	Total Contesting Candidates	Total Number of Analysed Candidates	candidates with declared Criminal Cases	% of candidates with declared criminal cases	candidates with declared serious criminal cases	% of candidates with declared serious criminal cases	No of Crorepatis	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
National Parties	1217	1209	490	41%	364	30%	853	71%
State Parties	926	921	374	41%	290	31%	488	53%
Registered Unrecognized Party	1278	1266	165	13%	139	11%	227	18%
Independent	1021	1010	113	11%	96	10%	165	16%
Total	4442	4406	1142	26%	889	20%	1733	39%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Phase Wise Summary of Candidates

Phase	No. of contesting candidates	No. of Candidates analysed	No. of Constituencies	No. of Candidates with Criminal Cases	% of Candidates with Criminal Cases	No. of Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases	% of Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases	No. of Crorepati Candidates	% of Crorepati Candidates	Average Assets (Rs. In crores )	Date of Poll
1	623	615	58	156	25%	121	20%	280	46%	3.72	10^th February, 2022
2	586	585	55	147	25%	113	19%	261	45%	4.12	14^th February, 2022
3	627	623	59	135	22%	103	17%	245	39%	2.82	20^th February, 2022
4	624	621	59	167	27%	129	21%	231	37%	2.46	23^rd February, 2022
5	693	685	61	185	27%	141	21%	246	36%	2.48	27^th February, 2022
6	676	670	57	182	27%	151	23%	253	38%	2.10	3^rd March, 2022
7	613	607	54	170	28%	131	22%	217	36%	2.55	7^th March, 2022
Total	4442	4406	403	1142	26%	889	20%	1733	39%	2.87	-

Table: Phase wise summary of candidates

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 4406 candidates analysed in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022, 1142(26%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, out of 4823 candidates analysed, 859(18%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 889(20%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, 704 (15%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2017 vs 2022

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,224(65%) out of 347 candidates analysed from SP, 11(58%) out of 19 candidates analysed from Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, 19 (58%) out of 33 candidates analysed from RLD, 169 (45%) out of 374 candidates analysed from BJP, 160 (40%) out of 397 candidates analysed from INC, 153 (38%) out of 399 candidates analysed from BSP, 6 (35%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Apna Dal (Soneylal) and 62 (18%) out of 345 candidates analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,163(47%) out of 347 candidates analysed from SP, 11(58%) out of 19 candidates analysed from Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, 17 (52%) out of 33 candidates analysed from RLD, 131 (35%) out of 374 candidates analysed from BJP, 108 (27%) out of 397 candidates analysed from INC, 119 (30%) out of 399 candidates analysed from BSP, 4 (24%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Apna Dal (Soneylal) and 50 (15%) out of 345 candidates analysed from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 69 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 69 candidates 10 candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 37 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 159 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 226(56%) out of 403 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 152 (38%) constituencies in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2017 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 26% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022 have given tickets to 18 % to 65 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Supreme Court in its directions dated 13th February, 2020 had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent 6 State Assembly elections held in 2020-21, it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers.

Financial Background

Figure: Share of Wealth among the Contesting Candidates

Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	586	13%
2 crores to 5 crores	602	14%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	1082	25%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	1150	26%
less than 10 lakhs	986	22%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 4406 candidates, 1733(39%) are crorepatis. In 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, out of 4823 candidates, 1457(30%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2017 Vs 2022

Party wise Crorepati Candidates: 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 31(94%) out of 33 candidates analysed from RLD, 335(90%) out of 374 candidates analysed from BJP, 302(87%) out of 347 candidates analysed from SP, 315(79%) out of 399 candidates analysed from BSP, 12(71%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Apna Dal (Soneylal), 13(68%) out of 19 candidates analysed from Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, 198(50%) out of 397 candidates analysed from INC and 112(33%) out of 345 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 is Rs 2.87 Crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 33 RLD candidates analysed is Rs. 8.59 Crores, 374 BJP candidates analysed is Rs 8.37 Crores, 347 SP candidates have average assets of Rs 7.97 Crores, 17 Apna Dal (Soneylal) candidates have average assets of Rs 7.62 Crores, 399 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 5.36 Crores, 19 Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party candidates have average assets of Rs 4.49 Crores, 397 INC candidates have average assets of Rs 3.63 Crores and 345 AAP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 1.25 Crores.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Age	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Nawab Kazim Ali Khan	Rampur	Rampur	INC	61	2,20,48,840	2,94,68,00,000	2,96,88,48,840 296 Crore+	Y
2	Shah Alam (Guddu Jamali)	Azamgarh	Mubarakpur	All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen	48	1,87,45,99,965	8,39,70,500	1,95,85,70,465 195 Crore+	Y
3	Supriya Aron	Bareilly	Bareilly Cantt.	SP	60	10,16,99,164	1,47,13,50,755	1,57,30,49,919 157 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: There are 7 candidates who have declared zero assets. The details of these candidates is given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Kailash Kumar	Aligarh	Atrauli	Bahujan Mukti Party	0	0	0	Y
2	Rajmani Mishra	Azamgarh	Nizamabad	IND	0	0	0	Y
3	Raja Babu	Etah	Jalesar (Sc)	IND	0	0	0	N
4	Rahul Pratap Singh	Etah	Jalesar (Sc)	IND	0	0	0	N
5	Vijay Kumar	Fatehpur	Khaga (Sc)	AAP	0	0	0	Y
6	Manoj Yadav	Jaunpur	Malhani	Bahujan Mukti Party	0	0	0	Y
7	Km. Priti	Muzaffarnagar	Meerapur	Rashtra Nirman Party	0	0	0	Y

Table: Candidates with declared zero assets

Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with lowest assets (excluding zero assets candidate) are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Deepak Srivastava	Maharajganj	Siswa	Aam Janta Party (India)	500^*	0	500 5 Hund+	Y
2	Shiv Charan Lal	Agra	Etmadpur	IND	1,000	0	1,000 1 Thou+	Y
3	Ambedakari Hasanuram Ambedakari	Agra	Kheragarh	IND	1,100^*	0	1,100 1 Thou+	N

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

* on assets value indicates that the candidate has not provided the total in their affidavits, it has been calculated on the basis of details provided by them in the same

Candidates with high liabilities: 1810(41%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Kunal Singh	Budaun	Sahaswan	Rashtriya Parivartan Dal	88,08,92,909 88 Crore+	30,12,38,121 30 Crore+	0	Y
2	Rakesh Pandey	Ambedkar Nagar	Jalalpur	SP	63,46,47,716 63 Crore+	23,22,88,591 23 Crore+	0	Y
3	Devender Nagpal	Amroha	Naugawan Sadat	BJP	1,40,76,48,765 140 Crore+	21,48,52,017 21 Crore+	0	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party	Constituency	District	Total Asset (Rs)	Self-Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self-income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	Akhilesh Pathak	IND	Shahabad	Hardoi	14,09,90,000 14 Crore+	Contractor & Agriculture	NA	2019-2020	14,00,47,916 14 Crore+	13,94,87,916 13 Crore+
2	Zafar Alam	SP	Aligarh	Aligarh	46,42,92,000 46 Crore+	Business	Business	2021-2022	9,43,97,770 9 Crore+	2,51,00,100 2 Crore+
3	Supriya Aron	SP	Bareilly Cantt.	Bareilly	1,57,30,49,919 157 Crore+	Social Service/ Consultant/ Salary	Advocate/ Rent/ Real estate	2020-2021	3,56,43,190 3 Crore+	6,98,280 6 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 candidates with highest income as declared in ITR

Undeclared PAN: A total of 233(5%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 1551(35%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 2477(56%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 39 candidates are Diploma holders. 254 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 54 candidates are Illiterates. 31 candidates have not given their educational qualification.

Age details of candidates: 1582(36%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 2285 (52%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 535 (12%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 4 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 560(13%) female candidates are contesting in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election 2022. In 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, 445(9%) out of 4823 candidates analysed were women.

Recommendations of ADR

To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society and citizens. Supreme Court of India being the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection and absence of required laws.

Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping etc.

Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.

Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.

Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.

De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly puts up a candidate with a tainted background.

Political party should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.

Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).

Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time bound manner.

Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September, 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.

Implementation of the 25^th September, 2018 and 13^th February, 2020 SC orders on 'publication of criminal cases against candidates selected by political parties along with reasons for such selection' in its letter and spirit by directing the Election Commission of India a) to list out names of such tainted candidates selected by the political parties along with such reasons for such selection C8 including diligent publication of reasons in newspapers, T.V channels, party website etc, b) strict and constant reminders by ROs to the defaulters, c) list needs to be religiously prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court after every election, d) uploading of this list on ECI’s website for public inspection, e) a suitably heavy financial penalty levied on political parties for making insufficient disclosures, invalid and common reasons, selection of candidates based on winnability and f) Officer in-charge of a political party pertaining to submission of a compliance report should also be held accountable for such a breach.

The Election Commission of India and all State Election Commissions should make it mandatory in all elections; Parliamentary, Assembly and Local Body elections to carry display boards outside each and every polling booth showing a summarised version of candidates’ affidavits. The polling booths should essentially display details of candidate’s criminal records, assets and liabilities and education qualification.

The Election Commission of India under its ‘Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) as well as through other national campaigns on voter awareness held before every election should inform and aware the voters that (i) taking and giving cash or gifts/freebies for votes is a criminal offense, (ii) such instances should be brought to the notice of the ECI through its web application, (iii) inform voters that information on criminal records of candidates is available on the ECI website, outside polling booths and other sources that the ECI may use.

Political parties in India should be required to announce/publish the list of candidates contesting elections at least 3 months prior to elections.

Role of money and muscle power is evident from the fact that all major political parties in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 have fielded 33% to 94% candidates who are crorepatis and 18 to 65 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. This close and alarming nexus between money power and muscle power has got so ingrained in our electoral system that the citizens are left hostage to the current situation. 38 % of the population of Uttar Pradesh is already below the poverty line as per the NFHS 2015-16 report of NITI Aayog published in 2021. Money and muscle power hurt the principles of 'free and fair elections', 'participatory democracy' and 'level playing field'. The present circumstances therefore demand an extensive deliberation by the voters so that sanctity of elections is not ridiculed by tenacious entry of tainted candidates and candidates with abnormal multiplication of assets.