Our Political Parties & their candidates

By Dilip Awasthi

Lucknow : As the countdown to the results of UP Vidhan Sabha elections begins, its worthwhile taking a look at what our main political parties - BJP, BSP, SP and Congress stand for as they fielded their chosen few to contest these crucial elections.

Daulat Queen Mayawati's party BSP, which stands for the downtrodden, excels in all formats. It has fielded the highest number of 150 candidates with criminal records. This accounts for 38% tainted candidates in the party fold. BSP wins the race by one percent against SP which has 37% criminals candidates, Despite Akhilesh's claim of refurbishing his party's image of the total 307 candidates he has fielded, as many as 113 have criminal cases going against them.

The BJP, which contested this election on the promise that it will end  SP's "Jungle Raj", is not far behind. Of the 383 candidates of BJP, as many as 137 (36%) have criminal cases pending against them. BJP, which always maintains a holier than thou attitude, will find this difficult to justify.  Congress party also has fielded criminals but it can boast to be the last of the major parties in the fray in this election. Of the 114 Congress candidates,  as many as 32% have criminal cases against them.

Interestingly the overall percentage of such candidates for 403 assembly seats is as low as 18%. Only 859 candidates of the total 4,823 fall in this category whereas the four main parties cross the 30% mark despite their tall promises and flowery manifestoes.

BSP also ranks on the top in fielding candidates with money-power as 335 (84%) candidates are crorepaties. BJP and SP have respectively fielded 79% such candidates and the Congress follows with 66% such candidates. More surprisingly 57 of BSP candidates who contested in 2007 also, increased their assets by 92% in their declaration submitted in 2017.

Nothing can possibly better prove the different masks these parties use to get to power.