In Uttar Pradesh (UP), every fourth winning MLA is facing serious criminal cases. In an analysis conducted by DNA, it emerged that out 403 constituency seats, 103 have been won by MLAs with a tainted background. Charges include rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, culpable homicide, communal disharmony, electoral violations, crimes against women, and so on.

Of the 704 candidates with charges against them, 103 have won in the current UP Assembly elections. Even as BJP won by a sweeping majority, it also emerged as the party with the largest number of candidates (82) with criminal cases against them. Samajwadi Party (SP) lagged far behind, with 11 tainted candidates. BSP, Apna Dal etc have three such candidates.

Notorious Mukhtar Ansari and Raja Bhaiya are among the tainted candidates who have emerged victorious.

At the time of voting this year, 57-year-old Ansari had no fewer than 16 cases pending against him, including at least 8 for murder or attempt to murder, according to the affidavit he submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI). He is yet to be convicted for any of the charge.

“If someone calls me mafia-don, it makes no difference,” Ansari had told author Patrick French five years ago. And yet again, he has won the state legislative election on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. This is Ansari’s fifth consecutive win in the state legislature since 1996, including the four times he won the polls from inside prison.

Ansari is just one of the examples of growing criminality among Indian politicians, especially in UP.

Raghuraj Pratap Singh, popularly known as Raja Bhaiya, has also been re-elected from Kunda near Pratapgarh as an Independent candidate. He is facing no fewer than eight criminal cases, including allegations of kidnapping, attempted murder, and dacoity. Since 1993 when he first entered politics, Raja Bhaiya has won the UP state Assembly elections from the Kunda constituency six consecutive times. A member of the royal family of the erstwhile Bhadri princely state in Pratapgarh, Raja Bhaiya has allegedly traded on his ancestral lineage, landlord roots, Hindu upper caste (Rajput) bonafides, and criminal reputation to seize and maintain a hold over the local politics.

In each of his six electoral victories, Raja Bhaiya won no less than 65 per cent of his constituency’s vote, a remarkable achievement in a country with intensely competitive elections. In 2012, he was invited to join the Cabinet as Food Minister in the Samajwadi Party (SP) government, with an additional charge of the prisons portfolio.

Similarly, SP’s Nahid Hasan has won the Kairana Assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival, BJP’s Mriganka Singh. Hasan is facing three serious criminal charges, including wrongful restraint and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. He had also won the October, 2014, by-elections. In the 2012 Assembly elections, however, BJP’s Hukum Singh won by 19,543 votes.

The list includes names of two women candidates, both from BJP. Sadhana Singh from Mughalsarai has seven criminal cases registered against her while Dr Reeta Joshi, who recently defected from Congress to BJP and won from Lucknow Cantonment, has two criminal cases registered against her.

UP, India’s most populous state, supplies 80 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha. The state’s Assembly is the most criminal-infested of the five for which the elections were held this year. “Of the 4,823 candidates analysed in 2017, 859 (18%) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of the 6,590 candidates analysed during UP Assembly elections in 2012, 1,278 (19%) had declared criminal cases against themselves,” stated the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a body that campaigns for better governance.

Politicians on trial or facing charges are free to run for office in India, where, according to the Ministry of Law and Justice, criminal cases last an average of 15 years.

Mukhtar Ansari

Constituency: MauParty: BSP Vote margin: 8,698​Criminal cases: 16Assets: Rs 21 crore+

Sushil Singh

Constituency: Saiyadraja (Chandauli) Party: BJP Criminal cases: 5 Vote margin: 14,494​Assets: Rs 13 crore+

Raghuraj Pratap Singh

Constituency: Kunda (Pratapgarh) Criminal cases: 1 Vote margin: 1 lakh + Assets: Rs 14 crore+

Nahid Hasan

Constituency: Kairana (Shamli) Criminal cases: 3 Vote margin: 21,162 Assets: Rs 3 crore+

No of winners facing serious criminal cases

BJP 82SP 11BSP 3Apna Dal 3INDP 3(with inputs by Maitri Porecha)