Source: 
Author: 
Soni Mishra
Date: 
20.10.2020
City: 

There appears to be no let-up in parties nominating candidates with a criminal background, with an analysis of the contestants in the fray in phase one of the Bihar Assembly elections showing that 31 per cent of them have criminal cases registered against them.

The Bihar Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms analysed self-sworn affidavits of 1,064 out of 1,066 candidates who are contesting in the first phase of the three-phase state elections, finding that 328 of them (31 per cent) have declared that they have been named in criminal cases. As many as 244 or 23 per cent have declared serious criminal cases against their names.

Among the major parties, 30 out of 41 candidates of the RJD or 73 per cent, 21 out of 29 candidates of the BJP or 72 per cent, 24 out of 41 candidates of the LJP or 59 per cent, 12 out of 21 candidates of the Congress or 57 per cent, 15 out of 35 candidates of the JD(U) or 43 per cent and eight out of 26 candidates of the BSP or 31 per cent have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

With regard to serious criminal cases, 22 out of 41 candidates of the RJD or 54 per cent, 20 out of 41 candidates of the LJP or 49 per cent, 13 out of 29 candidates of the BJP or 45 per cent,  nine out of out of 21 candidates of the Congress or 43 per cent, 10 out of 35 candidates of the JD(U) or 29 per cent and five out of 26 candidates of the BSP or 19 per cent have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

As many as 29 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women, and three of them have declared cases related to rape. A total of 21 candidates have murder cases and 62 candidates have attempt to murder cases pending against them.

Out of the 71 constituencies goes to polls in the first phase, 61 are ‘red alert’ seats on account of three or more candidates having declared criminal cases against themselves.

The ADR stated that the directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 31 per cent candidates with criminal cases.

With regard to financial background of the candidates, as many as 375 of them or 35 per cent are ‘crorepatis’, with the RJD having maximum number of such contestants at 91 per cent, followed by 89 per cent of the JD(U) and 83 per cent of the BJP. As many as 73 per cent of the LJP’s candidates, 67 per cent of the Congress and 46 per cent of the BSP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in phase one of the Bihar election is Rs 1.99 crore.

The richest candidate in the fray in the first phase of Bihar polls is RJD’s Anant Kumar Singh, contesting from Anant Kumar Singh, who has declared total assets worth over Rs 68 crore. Gajanand Singh of the Congress, candidate from Barbhiga seat, ranks second with assets worth over Rs 61 crore. JD(U) candidate Manorama Devi, who is in the fray in Atri constituency, has declared assets totalling more than Rs 50 crore.

On the other extreme are five candidates who have declared zero assets—Kapiladeo Mandal (Independent), Ashok Kumar (Jagrook Janata Party), Prabhu Singh (Rashtriya Swatantra Party), Gopal Nishad (NCP) and Mahaveer Manji (Bhartiya Insan Party).

© Association for Democratic Reforms
Privacy And Terms Of Use
Donation Payment Method