Lucknow, Mar 3 (IANS): The seventh and final phase of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh has 28 per cent criminal candidates.

According to an analysis report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of 607 candidates in the final phase, 170 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Of these, 131 candidates have serious criminal cases against them.

The Samajwadi Party is again leading the list of criminal candidates with 26 out of 45 candidates having a criminal background.

The BJP has 26 such candidates out of a total of 47 and the BSP has 20 out of 52.

The Congress has fielded 20 criminal candidates out of 54 and 8 out of 47 candidates are from AAP.

Eleven candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and two have cases related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Seven candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves and 25 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder.

On the basis of number of criminal candidates, 35 out of 54 constituencies have bene declared as Red Alert constituencies in the final phase of elections.