Nearly 25 percent of candidates contesting the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh have criminal cases against them, a report released on Monday said. Eight out of 32 candidates contesting the bye-elections have criminal cases registered against them, Uttar Pradesh chief co-ordinator Sanjay Singh said after releasing the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report here.

Of the 32 candidates, 11 are crorepatis and the average asset of a candidate is Rs 3.15 crore, the report said. Samajwadi Party's Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, who is contesting from Phulpur, is the richest candidate with assets worth Rs 33.85 crore. Atiq Ahmed has assets of Rs 25.50 crore, it said. The report also states that 21 of the total candidates are graduates or above, Singh said.
The report said that as many as 78 percent of candidates are in the age-group of 25-50 years, while rest are in the 51-70 years age bracket.
Of the 32 candidates in the fray, three are women, the ADR report said.