Official data with the State Election Commission (SEC) has not only revealed the shocking statistics but also suggests that 2.71 per cent of the total candidates have a tainted background.
The polls, which were labelled the ‘semi-finals’ ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha battle, saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) make a clean sweep by winning all 17 seats for the post of mayor. BJP also scored well when it came to other seats, including that of councillors, municipal council presidents, member municipal councils and municipal council members. UP saw a grand celebration, with chief minister Yogi Adityanath holding a press conference even before the results were announced to express his gratitude towards the people.
However, of the total candidates who were voted to power, around 12 per cent are illiterate. Further party-wise breakup of the data suggests that 262 of 3,873 candidates elected to various posts are illiterate.
Samajwadi Party (SP) comes next with 155 of the 1,215 candidates elected to different posts being unable to read and write.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) stood third as of the total 544 winning candidates, 84 are illiterate. Congress was fourth with 45 of 263 winning candidates. Similarly, of the 103 winning candidates of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), 19 are illiterates.
Other than highlighting the total percentage of illiterate candidates who were voted to power, the SEC’s data also revealed candidates with a criminal background. Of the BJP’s winning candidates, 120 have a criminal background. Among other parties, SP’s 64, BSP’s 20, Congress 16 and RLD’s 7 winning candidates have a criminal background.
The first phase of the UP urban local polls was held on May 4 where 46 per cent voting was recorded. In the first phase, according to official figures, around 2,40,00,000 voters used their right to elect 10 mayors, 820 councillors, 103 municipal council presidents, 2,740 member municipal councils, 275 presidents, including 3,645 municipal council members. In the second phase, the polling was held on May 11 to elect representatives for posts across 760 local bodies in the state.
Among the political parties, the ruling BJP fielded the highest number of candidates, followed by the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The BJP had fielded 10,758 candidates (including 4,248 women), the highest among all the 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 the AAP have fielded 2,994 (1,395 women) and 2,447 (1,031 women) candidates, respectively.
More than 46 per cent of the candidates fielded by the Congress were women and this appears to be higher than that of all other main political players. Among the BJP candidates, 39.48 were women, which was lower than that of the BSP (42.54%), the SP (42.49%) and AAP (42%).
Expressing their concern over the trend, political pundits and analysts said graduation should be the minimum qualification for 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 that comes with a big responsibility. I think in politics too, a minimum qualification rider should be used as I believe an educated candidate can fulfil their responsibilities in a much better way,” said SK Dwivedi, ex-head of department of political science, University of Lucknow.
Kaushal Kishore Mishra, former head of the department of political science at Banaras Hindu University, said the election commission should restrict the entry of candidates with tainted background. “I think, a person with a clean image should be allowed to contest polls. This will portray a clean image of politics and politicians in the country,” said Mishra.
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