Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls: From BJP to SP, a look at dubious candidates fielded by parties

From Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to Samajwadi Party (SP), parties have fielded controversial candidates, many with criminal cases lodged against them.

While parties keep taking a dig at each other over giving tickets to candidates with criminal backgrounds, almost all major parties in the fray have walked the same path. According to a public poll conducted by Zee News, 94% of those surveyed agreed that political parties keep playing the blame game and point fingers at opposition parties, refusing to look into their own track record, when it comes to giving people with criminal background tickets to contest.

Here’s a list of controversial candidates fielded by political parties in UP:

BJP:

Ex-ED officer Rajeshwar Singh: The BJP has fielded former joint director of the Enforcement Directorate Rajeshwar Singh from the Sarojini Nagar constituency in Lucknow a day after he took voluntary retirement from services to enter politics. Rajeshwar Singh had investigated Karti Chidambaram and his father senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis deal case. Rajeshwar Singh has been part of the investigating teams that since 2009 probed every corruption case that rocked the UPA government and demolished the credibility of Congress and its allies. They include the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Commonwealth Games scam and the coal mines allocation scam. In each of these cases, top leaders of Congress or its allies emerged as key accused.

Congress:

Vikas Dubey’s relative: Congress has given a ticket to slain gangster Vikas Dubey’s relative from the Kalyanpur constituency in Kanpur. Neha Tiwari has replaced her mother Gayatri Tiwari, whose name was announced earlier by the party. Neha Tiwari is the sister of Khushi Dubey who is the wife of Amar Dubey, brother of gangster Vikas Dubey, who was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Samajwadi Party:

Nahid Ahmed: The Samajwadi Party has announced the name of Nahid Hasan for the Kairana seat. Hasan has multiple criminal cases against him and is called the “mastermind” behind the Hindu exodus that was seen in the city. In February 2021, the UP Police had charged Tabassum Hasan, Nahid Hasan and 38 others under the Gangster Act.

Rafiq Ansari: Meerut MLA Rafiq Ansari has been again made the Samajwadi Party candidate. He too has several pending criminal cases against him and has been notorious for giving death threats to another leader of his own party. In October 2021, a court in Meerut had ordered his arrest on the complaint of a person named Bundu Khan Ansari. The complainant had alleged that MLA Rafiq Ansari had sold off his lands through forged documents and had pocketed the money.

Azam Khan: The Samajwadi Party recently declared that imprisoned Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan would run in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly election from his home turf, Rampur. Khan is the current Lok Sabha MP from Rampur. Azam Khan, who has been booked in more than 84 cases, is still in prison. He has been granted bail in most of these cases.

Yogesh Verma: SP candidate Yogesh Verma from Hastinapur faces over 30 criminal cases. Verma was an MLA from this seat in 2007 and lost the election in 2017 as well as Bulandhshaher Lok Sabha seat in 2019.