If you are a voter in Uttar Pradesh, chances are that your next MLA will be a criminal convicted by the court or have a pending criminal case. This report was jointly released by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Uttar Pradesh Election Watch after analysing affidavits of 284 candidates out of 867 candidates contesting the first phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The report highlights the criminal, financial and other details declared by candidates contesting the 1st phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. According to the report, out of these 284 candidates, 109 candidates (38%) declared criminal cases against themselves. This gives an overview of rest of the candidates which may result in an increase in the number of criminal candidates. The last assembly elections held in 2007 had only 28 percent candidates declaring criminal cases against themselves.

Every party has given tickets to candidates who have declared criminal cases. SP has 28 out of 55 (51 %), BSP 24 out of 55 (44 %), BJP 24 out of 55 (44 %), INC 15 out of 54 (28 %), Peace Party 12 out of 42 (29 %), JD(U) 5 out of 20 (25 %) and RLD has 1 out of 1 (100 %) candidates with declared criminal cases.

Out of these 109 candidates with declared criminal cases, 46 candidates (16 %) have declared serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, etc. The BJP has 12 candidates, BSP and SP 11, Peace Party 6, INC 5 and JD (U) has one such candidate.

Money seems to be the prime factor in getting an assembly ticket by political parties. A total of 144 candidates out of 284 analysed for the 1st phase i.e. 51% are crorepatis. In 2007, there were 22% crorepati candidates.

Only six candidates have declared assets less than one lakh. A total of 10 candidates out of 284 analysed declared liabilities of 80 lakh and above. Among the major political parties, the average asset per candidate for SP is 1.74 crore and for BSP 3.83 crore. While for BJP the average asset per candidate is 1.56 crore, for INC it is 1.34 crore, Peace Party 1.01 crore and for JD (U) 32.09 lakh.

According to the report, 163 out of 284 candidates analysed i.e. 57% are graduates or with higher educational qualifications.

Women take a backseat like in other states. Out of 867 candidates analysed for 1st phase Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, only 65(7%) candidates are women. While the number of women candidates for the ruling BSP is 5(9%) out of 55, for BJP it is 6(11%) out of 55, INC it is 4(7%) out of 54 and SP it is 4(7%) out of 55.

Data on increasing in assets of 44 MLAs who are contesting again in the 1st phase of elections was also released by the ADR and the UPEW. Their affidavits from 2007 assembly elections were compared with their recent affidavits.

The average assets of these MLAs as declared in 2012 is Rs 3, 08, 80,671 (3.08 crore). This is higher than the average asset declared (1.43 crore) in 2007.

While average asset growth for these MLAs contesting again is Rs 1, 65, 37,647 (1.65 Crore), the average percentage growth in their assets is 115 percent.

Analysis of income tax returns and PAN details from affidavits of candidates contesting in the 1st phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections shows that Ranjana Bajpai of the ruling BSP has the highest annual income of Rs 91.51 lakh followed by Vinay Shankar at Rs 78.22 lakh. Jitendra Singh (Peace Party) has declared annual income of Rs 58.61 lakh and Awadesh Kumar Singh (SP) has declared Rs 50.30 lakh as annual income. The income detail is in accordance with their last filed income tax returns.

There is a tough competition between candidates in terms of not filing IT returns. A total of 96 candidates (34%) out of the 284 candidates have declared that they have never filed IT returns.

The report reveals that BSP has 9 (16%) out of 55 candidates, BJP has 16 (29%) out of 55 candidates, SP has 19 (35%) out of 55 candidates, INC has 21 (39%) out of 54 candidates, Peace Party has 17(40%) out of 42 candidates and JD (U) has 13(65%) out of 20 candidates who have never filed IT returns.

Top three candidates with maximum assets but who have never filed IT returns are Farid Mahfuz Kidwai of SP contesting from Kursi with total assets worth Rs 3.52 crore, followed by Gauri Sankar of INC from Mahadewa with assets of Rs 2.88 crore and Ram Sajivan of BJP from Ram Nagar with Rs 2.57 crore respectively.

A total of 40(14%) candidates have not declared their PAN details of which 10 are from SP, nine from BJP, seven from JD (U), six from Peace Party, four from INC and three are from BSP.

Top three candidates with maximum assets who have not declared their PAN card details are Indrani Devi of SP contesting from Bhinga constituency with assets of Rs 1.97 crore followed by  Jata Shankar of BJP contesting from Nanpara with total assets of Rs 1.63 crore and Subhash Tripathi of BJP contesting from Payagpur with assets of Rs 1.60 crore.

Detailed report on ITR  with other reports can be read here.