Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: The Samajwadi Party has fielded the maximum 52 candidates having assets worth over Rs 1 crore while the BJP stands second in the list with 48 such contestants for the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, according to a report. The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded 46 such candidates while the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have 29 and 18 contestants, respectively, the report by Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

The UP Election Watch and the ADR said they have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 623 candidates out of 627 who are contesting the polls on February 20. The affidavits of remaining four candidates were either badly scanned or incomplete, it added.

Overall, 245 (or 39 per cent) candidates are crorepatis in the fray for the third phase assembly polls, the report found.

“The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates,” it noted.

The richest candidate in the fray is SP’s Yashpal Singh Yadav with assets valued more than Rs 70 crore. He will be contesting from Babina constituency in Jhansi, the report stated.

The next two richest candidates are both from the Congress in Kanpur — Ajay Kapoor (Rs 69 crore) and Pramod Kumar (Rs 45 crore). Kapoor will contest the polls from the Kidwai Nagar seat while Kumar from the Arya Nagar constituency.

Two candidates have declared zero assets. Both are independent contestants. Raja Babu and Rahul Pratap Singh both are fighting from Jalesar (SC) seat in Etah district, the report said.

Among candidates with low assets except zero, independent contestant Devraj from the Mahoba seat in Mahoba district has declared assets worth just Rs 10,000.

The next in line is independent Ramdas from Bilhaur (SC) seat in Kanpur Nagar with Rs 20,000 assets and Dhirendra Singh Gautam of Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) from the Dibiyapur seat in Auraiyya district with Rs 25,000 assets.

The phase three polls on February 20 will be held in 59 assembly constituencies spanning the 16 districts of Auriyya, Etah, Etawah, Farukkhabad, Firozabad, Hamirpur, Hathras, Jalaun, Jhansi, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Kasganj, Lalitpur, Mahoba and Mainpuri.

The elections to the 403 assembly seats are being held in seven phases this time. The polls for the first two phases were held on February 10 and 14.

The election results will be announced on March 7.