Ugly Dance of Democracy - UP election scenario

The affidavits of 785 candidates contesting the first phase of the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly polls make appalling reading - almost 131 have criminal cases pending against them, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leading the pack.The BSP has 22 candidates followed by the Samajwadi Party (SP) 19, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 16 and the Congress 15 with criminal cases. In the last assembly elections in 2002, 32 of the 62 seats going to polls on April 7 were won by candidates facing serious criminal charges (and our PM, President and FM are talking about increasing rural contribution in GDP)

According to Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW), a non-partisan body of citizens, 11 candidates had not bothered to mention they had any criminal cases pending against them though the state government's website says all of them have pending cases. At least two dozen independent candidates with criminal backgrounds have also thrown their hat into the electoral ring.

• Leading the pack is Mumbai blasts accused Abu Salem, who was in fact the first one to announce his candidature from the Mubarakpur assembly seat.
• Then there is another don, Babloo Srivastava, who was extradited from Singapore five years ago and has now decided to contest the Lucknow central seat.
• Besides, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, is back in the poll field as is Seema Parihar, the accomplice of slain dacoit Nirbhay Gujjar.

Charges against many candidates vary from murder, theft and rape to extortion and banditry. In seven constituencies - Jasrana, Hamirpur, Firozabad, Lalitpur, Agra Cantt, Kanpur and Aliganj - there were more than five candidates with pending criminal cases. UPEW also disclosed that political parties had also nominated many candidates with criminal records for the remaining phases.

For an election that is bound to see big money power, UPEW found to its horror that a whopping 509 candidates did not have a permanent account number (PAN) card, a must for all income-tax assesses.The Congress party candidates led this dubious distinction followed by the BSP, SP and the BJP. Among the top 10 candidates with high liabilities, one Congress candidate with a Rs.3 million loan did not have a PAN card. There were 74 candidates who declared financial assets worth more than Rs.10 million and the SP led the team with 17 candidates followed by BSP 14, BJP 14, and Congress 11.

Bibhu Mahapatra of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watch organisation, says this time around their campaign has had some effect."If you look at the 2002 results, of the 62 seats that were going to polls in the first phase, 32 seats were won by candidates with serious criminal charges. This time around it is only 24 percent of the contesting candidates. So the voice of the people for cleaner polls is making an impact. It is a process." (They are Kidding.........right).