Fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections is going to be held on February 23, and the candidates are all set to face the poll. Now it is for voters to decide who their representative will be- an educated criminal, a criminal crorepati, or a sitting MLA whose asset increased by 126 percent in five years.

A report has been released jointly by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW) detailing the assets, criminal charges, and educational qualifications of those who are in the poll fray. UPEW and ADR has analysed affidavits of 248 candidates contesting the elections in fifth phase.

According to the report, out of these 248 candidates analyzed, 76 or 31 percent candidates have declared criminal cases against them. Among them, 35 candidates have declared serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion etc.

Almost every party has given ticket to such candidates. While SP has 24 out of 48 (50%) candidates having pending criminal cases against them, INC has 14 out of 48 (29%), BJP 13 out of 47 (28%), BSP 12 out of 49 (24%), JD(U) six out of 24 (25%), Bundelkhand Congress four out of 13 (31%), Peace Party two out of 12 (17%) and Apna Dal has one out of six (17%) candidate with declared criminal cases.

Ram Veer Singh of SP, contesting from Jasrana constituency) has declared maximum number of criminal cases. He has declared 18 criminal cases including eight charges related to murder. He is followed by Rameshwar Singh (SP, Aliganj constituency) who has declared 27 criminal cases including five charges related to murder and Hari Om (SP, Sirsaganj constituency) has declared 16 criminal cases including six charges related to murder.

The report says that a total of 118 candidates out of 248 analyzed i.e. 47 percent are crorepatis.

The candidate with maximum assets is Balvir Singh of INC from Govindnagar constituency with assets worth Rs. 47.80 crore followed by party mates Brijendra Kumar Vyas from Jhansi Nagar constituency with Rs. 24.09 crore and Rajendra Kumar Yadav from Babina constituency with assets worth Rs. 22.88 crore.

Only three candidates have declared assets below one lakh with Mahendra of Bundelkhand Congress from Babina declaring zero assets.

The good fact which comes out in the UPEW-ADr report is 61 percent candidates (153 of 248 analyzed) are graduates or having higher qualifications.

Women, as usual, take a back seat. Out of 840 candidates only 90 (11%) candidates are women. The number of women candidates for BSP is four out of 49, for BJP it is nine out of 49, INC is four out of 48 and for SP it is five out of 49.

It seems the sitting MLAs have made enough money in the five years of their governement as the average asset growth of 26 sitting MLAs contesting elections is 126 percent (Rs 1.70 crore).

Jayveer Singh of BSP from Karhal has shown the highest asset increase of Rs. 5.99 crore (from Rs 2.19 crore in 2007 to Rs 8.19 crore in 2012). He is followed by Satish Mahana of BJP from Maharajpur constituency with an asset increase of Rs. 3.78 crore (from Rs 3.48 crore in 2007 to Rs 7.26 crore in 2012) and Ashok Yadav of JD(U) from Sirsaganj who showed an asset increase of Rs 3.39 crore (from Rs 3.12 crore in 2007 to Rs 6.51 crore in 2012)

The highest percentage increase (6,021%) has been for Mahendra Singh Rajpoot of BSP from Etawah constituency. His assets rose from Rs 5.25 lakhs in 2007 to Rs 3.21 crore in 2012. He is followed by Mamtesh of BSP from Amanpur constituency with an increase of 608% (Rs 15.87 lakhs in 2007 to Rs 1.12 crore in 2012) and Alok Kumar of SP from Mainpuri constituency whose assets rose 560% (from Rs 17.54 lakhs in 2007 to Rs 1.16 crore in 2012).

A total of 65 candidates (26%) out of the 249 candidates analyzed by the UPEW have declared that they have never filed income tax returns.

Out of these 65 candidates, JD(U) has the maximum number of candidates which is 13 (54%) out of 24 who have never filed IT returns. It is followed by SP's 13 (27%) out of 48 candidates, INC has 10 (21%) out of 48 candidates, BJP 10 (21%) out of 47 candidates, Bundelkhand Congress seven (54%) out of 13 candidates, BSP five (10%) out of 49 candidates, Peace Party three (23%) out of 13 candidates, and Apna Dal has three (50%) out of six candidates who have not filed IT returns.

Top three candidates with maximum assets but who have never filed IT returns are Ranjeet Suman of SP contesting from Jalesar (SC) (Rs. 2.41 crore), followed by Ram Ratan of BJP from Latitpur (Rs. 1.49 crore) and Amit Gaurav of SP from Marhara (Rs. 1.36 crore).

The report also reveals that 36 (15%) candidates have not declared their PAN details of which JD (U) & SP have the maximum number of candidates (eight). While INC has six out of 48 such candidates, BJP has five out of 47, Bundelkhand Congress four out of 13, Peace party two out of 13, and BSP, Apna Dal and RLD each have one such candidate.