Lucknow, Feb 17 (IANS): As Uttar Pradesh moves towards the fourth phase of elections, it is the Congress which has fielded the maximum number of candidates with a criminal background.

The Congress, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), has fielded 31 out of 58 candidates having a criminal background.

The Samajwadi Party comes a close second with 30 out of 57 candidates. The BSP has put up 26 candidates having a criminal history and the BJP has 23 candidates. The AAP has 11 candidates who are tainted.

Nearly 22 candidates in the Congress are facing serious criminal charges and a similar number is in the SP list. The BSP has 22 and the BJP has 17 while AAP has nine candidate who face serious charges.

Nine candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and two of these have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section 376).

Five candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section 302) against themselves and 14 are booked for attempt to murder.

Nearly 29 of the 59 constituencies going to the polls in this phase on February 23 have been declared Red Alert constituencies.