Half of MLAs in UP face criminal cases

Almost half of the new Uttar Pradesh Assembly will comprise members having criminal antecedents, despite the promises of the political parties not to give tickets to people with criminal background in the elections.

As many as 189 newly elected legislators, constituting 47 per cent of the house, which has a total strength of 403, have criminal cases pending against them. Of them, 98 are facing criminal cases of a serious nature, according to a report of the UP Election Watch.
Incidentally, the outgoing Assembly had 140 tainted members.

Interestingly, almost half of the newly elected Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators are facing criminal charges. The figure for the BSP stands at 29 while there were 25 `tainted' MLAs in the BJP. Criminal cases are pending against 13 Congress legislators as well, the report said.

Mitrasen Yadav, SP legislator from Faizabad, faces the maximum number of 36 criminal cases, followed by the independent MLA Sushil Singh, who faces 20. The report said that as many as 18 SP members face facing murder cases while 61 face attempt to murder charges, the report said.

Five BSP MLAs were face murder charges and five in attempt to murder cases. Two BJP legislators are facing murder cases and nine are facing attempt to murder cases.