As many as 26 of the 48 ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav government have criminal antecedents, concludes an analysis recently conducted by NGO National Election Watch (NEW). The chief minister himself is, however, clean with no criminal cases pending against him.
NEW co-ordinator Anshuman Singh told reporters here on Sunday that this constitutes 54% of the Akhilesh Yadav ministry. The conclusion has been drawn after a study of the affidavits filed by these 47 ministers as also the chief minister with their nominations for the assembly election earlier this year. Earlier, in a report made public immediately after the election, the NEW had stated that as many as 189 or 47% of the total 403 MLAs in the UP Assembly had criminal cases against them.
As per the latest NEW study, nine or 19% of the 48 ministers have declared serious IPC cases like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and dacoity pending against them.
Among the 26 tainted ministers, the dubious distinction of being the top three goes to Mehboob Ali (Samajwadi Party MLA from Amroha), who has declared 15 cases, including attempt to murder, kidnapping and robbery, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya (Independent MLA from Kunda) with eight criminal cases, including attempt to murder, kidnapping and dacoity, and Arvind Kumar Singh (of SP from Ram Nagar) with three cases, including attempt to murder.
Manoj Kumar Paras, SP MLA from Nagina, had declared a rape charge against him at the time of filing his nomination, the NEW spokesman said.
Interestingly, 38 of the 48 ministers analysed (i.e. 79%) are crorepatis, he said. The average assets of a UP minister work out to Rs2.79 crore, he added.
