New Delhi, April 22: The Samajwadi Party has taken the lead in fielding candidates with criminal backgrounds as Uttar Pradesh gets set for the fourth phase of elections tomorrow.

Among the candidates put up by the party in 57 constituencies going to polls, 27 (or 47.36 per cent) have criminal cases pending against them, Uttar Pradesh Election Watch, a poll-monitoring organisation, said.

The Bahujan Samaj Party had led on this count in the first two phases but the Samajwadi Party pipped its arch-rival in the third phase.

Fielding nearly half the candidates with criminal background in the fourth phase, the Samajwadi Party has increased the margin substantially.

In the third phase of polls held on April 18, nearly 36 per cent of the Samajwadi candidates had criminal cases pending against them.

Despite the Election Commission’s vigilance and security arrangements, the perception that having pending criminal cases improves the chances of candidates persists in Uttar Pradesh.

Nearly 31 per cent of the BJP candidates for the fourth phase have a criminal background, making the party second only to the Samajwadi Party. The BJP is closely followed by the Congress, with around 27 per cent candidates having criminal cases pending against them.

The BSP has slid to the fourth spot in fielding such contenders for tomorrow’s polls — a fifth of the candidates have criminal antecedents.

In the first two phases, 35 per cent and 31 per cent of its candidates, respectively, had criminal cases against them. In the third phase, when the party was second only to the Samajwadi Party in this respect, nearly 30 per cent had criminal backgrounds.

The four phases together account for 234 seats in the 403-member Assembly. Over 34 per cent of the candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party have criminal cases pending against them.

The figure for the BSP is over 29 per cent, for the BJP over 28 per cent and for the Congress around 22 per cent.