UP Election: No criminal candidates for Lucknow West

LUCKNOW: The poll arena in the state maybe full of candidates with criminal antecedents but Lucknow seems to be a welcome exception. Out of 30 candidates from the main parties on the five urban seats, only two of them face serious criminal charges. Both are former student union leaders - SP's Ravidas Mehrotra and Congress's Ramesh Srivastava.

Lucknow West is the cleanest of all the five constituencies as none of the main contestant face any criminal charges. From this seat, Sayed Hussain will represent Bahujan Samaj party, Mohammed Rehan, Samajwadi Party; sitting MLA Shyam Kishore Shukla represents Congress while Suresh Srivastava will contest on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. Peace Party's Aziz Khan, the other candidate testing poll waters in this constituency also has no criminal track record.

Eleven out of 30 candidates have declared criminal records. Lucknow Central's Ravidas Mehrotra, contesting on SP ticket faces 17 criminal cases, including charges of murder and attempt to murder, to his name. Congress candidate from Lucknow East, Ramesh Srivastava, with 7 criminal cases, has also been charged in a case of attempt to murder, along with rioting and being armed with a deadly weapon.

Though other candidates in the political fray in Lucknow have also been charged under other sections of the Indian Penal Code, BSP's Naveen Chandra Dwivedi has been indicted for serious offences in each of the three cases he has been booked under.

Juhie Singh, Samajwadi Party candidate who is making her poll debut in Lucknow East, is facing one one criminal case, of forgery. The other woman candidates, UPCC chief Rita Joshi has a criminal record too, charged under the SC/ST Act for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language.