UP Assembly election phase 4: 231 candidates are crorepatis, 1 has declared zero assets

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections Phase IV: 59 Assembly seats will go to polls on February 23. (FILE)

A whopping 231 out of 621 candidates (37 percent) contesting the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in the fourth phase are crorepatis, an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report has analysed from their affidavits.

There are 624 candidates in the fray in this phase of which the ADR has analysed 621. Among the major parties, 50 out of 57 candidates (88 percent) analysed from BJP, 48 out of 57 (84 percent) from Samajwadi Party, 44 out of 59 candidates (75 percent) from Bahujan Samaj Party, 28 out of 58 candidates (48 percent) from the Congress and 16 out of 45 candidates (36 percent) from Aam Aadmi Party have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Rajiv Bakshi, AAP candidate contesting from Lucknow West has declared the highest assets exceeding Rs 56 crore.

Interestingly, another AAP candidate Vijay Kumar from the Khaga (SC) constituency has declared zero assets in his self-sworn affidavit.

Rajiv Bakshi is followed by SP’s Anoop Kumar Gupta (Rs 52 crore) and BSP’s Shobhit Pathak (Rs 34 crore).

The average assets per candidate contesting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections Phase IV is Rs 2.46 crore.

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 57 BJP candidates is Rs 7.57 crore, 57 SP candidates is Rs 5.65 crore, 59 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 4.71 crore, 58 Congress candidates have average assets of Rs 3.33 crore and 45 AAP candidates have average assets worth Rs 2.08 crore.

Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) candidate Surendra Kumar has declared the lowest assets at Rs 5,000.

59 Assembly seats will go to polls in the fourth phase of polling on February 23. Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur will vote in the fourth phase.