The official data from the State Election Commission (SEC) has not only revealed shocking figures, but also revealed that 2.71 per cent of the total candidates have tainted background.
Billed as the ‘semi-finals’ ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha battle, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep for the mayoral post by winning all 17 seats. The BJP also performed well in other seats, including that of councillors, municipal council presidents, members of municipal councils and municipal council members. UP witnessed a grand celebration, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath holding a press conference to express his gratitude to the people even before the results were announced.
However, about 12 percent of the total candidates who came to power are illiterate. Further party-wise data analysis shows that out of 3,873 candidates elected to various posts, 262 are illiterate.
Samajwadi Party (SP) out of 1,215 candidates elected to different positions with 155 unable to read and write.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) came third out of total 544 winning candidates, 84 are illiterate. Congress was fourth with 45 out of 263 winning candidates. Similarly, out of 103 winning candidates of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), 19 are illiterate.
Apart from highlighting the overall percentage of illiterate candidates voted to power, the SEC data also revealed candidates with criminal backgrounds. 120 of BJP’s winning candidates have criminal background. Among other parties, 64 winning candidates of SP, 20 of BSP, 16 of Congress and 7 of RLD have criminal background.
The first phase of UP urban local elections took place on May 4, where 46 per cent polling was recorded. In the first phase, according to official figures, around 2,40,00,000 voters exercised their right to elect 10 mayors, 820 councillors, 103 municipal council chairmen, 2,740 member municipal councils, 275 chairpersons, including 3,645 municipal council members. used. In the second phase, polling was held on May 11 to elect representatives to 760 local body posts in the state.
Among political parties, the ruling BJP fielded the maximum number of candidates, followed by Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The BJP fielded 10,758 candidates (including 4,248 women), the highest among all parties. The SP has fielded the second highest number of candidates – 5,231 (2,223 women), followed by the BSP’s 3,787 (1,611 women). The Congress and AAP have fielded 2,994 (1,395 women) and 2,447 (1,031 women) candidates, respectively.
More than 46 percent of the candidates fielded by the Congress were women, and this appears to be higher than all other major political players combined. 39.48% of BJP candidates were women, which was less than BSP (42.54%), SP (42.49%) and AAP (42%).
Political pundits and analysts expressed their concern over this trend, saying that there should be a minimum qualification for graduate candidates and only those with a clean image should be allowed to contest elections.
“Politics is no different from any other profession. In fact, politics is one of the most important professions which comes with a great responsibility. I think a minimum qualification rider should be used in politics also because I believe That an educated candidate can better fulfill his responsibilities,” said SK Dwivedi, former head of the Department of Political Science, Lucknow University.
Kaushal Kishore Mishra, former head of the Department of Political Science at Banaras Hindu University, said that the Election Commission should ban the admission of candidates with tainted background. “I think a person with a clean image should be allowed to contest elections. It will present a clean image of politics and leaders in the country.