Sunday, April 6, 2014

262 (19%) out of 1391 candidates contesting Lok Sabha 2014 elections in the 3rd Phase have declared criminal cases against themselves. Average Assets: Rs. 3.05 crores

National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1391 candidates out of 1419 candidates who are contesting in the Phase 3 of Lok Sabha 2014 Elections. The rest of the candidates were not analysed due to unclear/incomplete affidavits uploaded on the ECI website at the time of making of this report.

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 1391 candidates analysed, 262 candidates (19%) have declared criminal cases against themselves

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 147 candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, rape, robbery etc.

Candidates with multiple serious IPC counts: 96 candidates have declared multiple serious IPC counts. Kameshwar Baitha of AITC from Palamau Constituency, Jharkhand has declared 109 serious IPC counts followed by Narendra Mohanty of AAP from Kandhamal constituency, Orissa with 28 serious IPC counts and Keshwar Yadav of SP from Chatra constituency with 20 serious IPC counts.

Candidates with cases related to murder: 9 candidates have declared cases related to murder.

Candidates with cases related to Attempt to Murder: 29 candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder.

Candidates with cases related to Crimes against Women: 9 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. Shahnawaj Rana of SP from Bijnor constituency, Uttar Pradesh has declared a case related to rape. Ashok Bisi of CPI from Bargarh constituency, Orissa has declared one case related to charge related to Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC Section-498A). 5 candidates have declared cases related to assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section-354).

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: 21 (29%) out of 72 candidates from INC, 38 (48%) out of 80 candidates from BJP, 15 (19%) out of 78 candidates from AAP, 16 (18%) out of 89 candidates fielded by BSP and 59 (11%) out of 549 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 13 (18%) out of 72 candidates from INC, 22 (28%) out of 80 candidates from BJP, 10 (13%) out of 78 candidates from AAP, 9 (10%) out of 89 candidates fielded by BSP and 31 (6%) out of 549 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 36 constituencies have at least 3 candidates from political parties with declared criminal cases.

Financial Background

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 1391 candidates analysed, 397 (29%) are crorepatis.

Party-wise Crorepati Candidates: 59 (82%) out of 72 candidates in INC, 54 (68%) out of 80 candidates in BJP, 36 (46%) out of 78 candidates in AAP and 34 (38%) out of 89 candidates in BSP and 83 (15%) out of 549 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

Average Assets: The average assets per candidate contesting in the 3rd phase of Lok Sabha 2014 elections is Rs.3.05 Crores.

Party-wise Average Assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 72 INC candidates is Rs 17.91 crores, 80 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs.6.28 crores, 78 AAP candidates have average assets worth of Rs. 2.90 crores and 89 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs. 8.27 crores.

Party-wise Asset Rank: 59 (82%) out of 72 INC candidates occupy the top three assets positions amongst all the contesting candidates in their respective constituencies. Similarly, 50 (63%) out of 80 BJP candidates, 23 (26%) out of 89 BSP candidates and 21 (27%) out of 78 AAP candidates occupy the top three asset positions in their constituency.
High Asset Candidates: 11 candidates have more than Rs.50 crores worth of assets.