At least 25 per cent of candidates contesting the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh have criminal cases against them, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report.
Eight out of 32 candidates contesting the bye-elections have criminal cases registered against them, Uttar Pradesh chief co-ordinator Sanjay Singh said after releasing the ADR report.
As far as heinous crimes were concerned, eight cases of murder and as many for attempt to murder are registered against Independent candidate from Phulpur Atiq Ahmed, he added.
Singh also mentioned that the Parivartan Samaj Party's candidate from Phulpur Raees Ahmed also faces a case of attempt to murder.
There are 10 candidates in the fray from Gorakhpur and 22 from Phulpur.
Of the 32 canditates contesting the bypolls, 11 are crorepatis and the average asset of a candidate is Rs 3.15 crore, the report revealed.
Apart from this, the report also named Samajwadi Party's Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, who is contesting from Phulpur, as the richest candidate with assets worth Rs 33.85 crore. Atiq Ahmed has assets of Rs 25.50 crore, it said.
The report also states that 21 of the total candidates are graduates or above, Singh said.
The report said that as many as 78 per cent of candidates are in the age-group of 25-50 years, while rest are in the 51-70 years age bracket.
Of the 32 candidates in the fray, three are women, the ADR report said.
A traditional BJP bastion, Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency is facing bye-elections after Yogi Adityanath resigned to take on the duty as the chief minister of the state.
Similarly, Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency is also going witness bypolls as Kehsav Prasad Maurya resigned to become deputy CM of the state.
The voting to the Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur will be held on March 11 and the results will be declared on March 14.
(With PTI inputs)
