UP Polls 2022: Candidates with criminal backgrounds feature in BJP, SP, BSP lists

Lucknow: The BJP has attacked the Samajwadi Party on Thursday over the inclusion of the names of several alleged criminals in its list of candidates for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. However, the top leadership of the BJP took a jibe at SP president Akhilesh Yadav regarding the issue, saying that the SP candidates were ‘either in jail or out on bail’.

Names of such questionable candidates, however, are found in the lists of all major political parties ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Out of the lists announced so far, cases have been registered against 18 SP candidates whereas for BJP, a total of 20 of its candidates face charges at the moment. Among the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), there are 16 candidates have criminal cases against them and yet have filed nominations.

According to political experts, there exist provisions to prevent those having criminal cases against them from contesting elections. The discretion in this case lies with the judiciary, who can allow or disallow any candidate from contesting the elections based on their cognisance of crimes committed by the person.

Senior Journalist Vijay Upadhyay opined that almost all major political parties at the moment have candidates with criminal backgrounds. “They can be termed criminals only when the court punishes them. If the government wants clean politics, then fast track court hearings should be conducted for MLAs, former MLAs, as well as MPs and former MPs. Either should face conviction, or be acquitted via trial. This is the only way politics can be cleansed off people with criminal tendencies."

Here are the candidates in each of the aforementioned parties with cases pending against them:

Samajwadi Party: Rahul Yadav of Secunderabad, Zafar Alam of Aligarh, Harish Kumar of Dibai, Banshi Singh of Khurja, Mohammad Adil of Meerut South, Devendra Agarwal of Mathura, Shah Isaac of Koil, Nahid Hasan of Kairana, Prince of Dadri, Gyanendra of Agra North, Viresh Yadav of Atrauli, Rafiq Ansari of Meerut, Sunil Chaudhary of Noida, Yogesh Verma of Hastinapur, Atul Pradhan of Sardhana, Shahid Manzoor of Kithor, Pankaj Kumar Malik of Charthawal and Amarpal of Sahibabad.

BJP: Suresh Khanna of Thana Bhawan, Umesh Malik of Budhana, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha of Khairagarh, Yogendra Upadhyay of Agra South, Pradeep Kumar Chaudhary of Bulandshahr, Vijaypal of Hapur, Mriganka Singh of Kairana, Kamal Dutt Sharma of Meerut, Maninder Pal of Siwal Khas. , Nandkishore of Loni, Babulal of Fatehpur Sikri, Dinesh Khatik of Hastinapur, Sangeet Som of Sardhana, Anil Kumar of Shikarpur, Satyaveer Singh of Kithor, Dr. Dharampal Singh of Etmadpur, Prashant Chaudhary of Meerapur, Vikram Singh of Khatauli, Anil Parashar of Koil , Amit Agarwal of Meerut Cantonment.

BSP: Mohammad Rafiq of Shikarpur, Salman Saeed of Charthawal, Manish Singh of Hapur, Prabal Pratap Singh of Etmadpur, Dilshad Ali of Meerut South, Rameshwar of Anupshahar, Tilak Raj of Charra, Kallu Qureshi of Bulandshahr, Kartar Singh Bhadana of Khatauli, Amit Sharma of Meerut Cantt, Sanjeev Kumar of Hastinapur, Sunil Kumar of Sayana, Satish Kumar Sharma of Mathura, Akil of Loni, Manveer Singh of Secunderabad.