This talk is based on nearly 15 years of active work in the field with the Courts, with the Election Commission, the media, several politicians, retired Judges, IAS and IPS officers, eminent civil society leaders, and over a thousand NGOs spread all over the country.

Full text of Prof. Trilochan Sastry's Talk on "Towards the De-Criminalization of Politics"

Video of Prof. Trilochan Sastry's Talk on "Towards the De-Criminalization of Politics"



Ten Years of Election Watch: Comprehensive Reports on Elections, Crime and Money

Summary and Highlights:

Following are the highlights that emerge from the analysis carried out by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW):-

  • Total Number of Candidates Analyzed: A total of 62847 Candidates who have contested either Parliamentary or State Assembly Elections since 2004 have been analyzed by ADR and NEW.
  • Total Number of MPs/MLAs Analyzed: A total of 8790 MPs/MLAs who have either held seats since 2004 either in the Parliament or in State Assemblies have been analyzed by ADR and NEW.

Criminal:

  • Candidates with Criminal Cases: A total of 11063 out of these 62847 (18%) Candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
  • Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 5253 (8%) out of the 11063 Candidates analyzed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
  • Sitting Lok Sabha MPs with Criminal Cases: 162 (30%) out of the 543 Lok Sabha MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves. 76 or 14% of the current Lok Sabha MPs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
  • Sitting Rajya Sabha MPs with Criminal Cases: 40 out of 232 (17%) sitting MPs from Rajya Sabha have declared criminal cases against themselves. 16 (7%) of the current Rajya Sabha MPs have declared serious criminal cases.  
  • Sitting MLAs who have declared Criminal Cases: 1258 (31%) out of the 4032 sitting MLAs from all state assemblies have declared criminal cases against themselves. 15% of the current MLAs from all state assemblies have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
  • MPs/MLAs with Criminal Cases: Out of the 8790 MPs/MLAs analyzed since 2004, 2575 or 29% have declared criminal cases against themselves and 1187 or 14% have serious criminal charges.  INC has 8% and BJP has 13% MPs/MLAs with serious criminal charges.

Financial:

  • Average Assets of Candidates who have contested Elections: The average assets of all Candidates (62847)analyzed since 2004, is Rs. 1.37 Crores.
  • Average Assets of MPs/MLAs: The average assets of all MPs/MLAs (8790) analyzed since 2004 is Rs. 3.83 Crores.

Corelation between Criminal Cases and Financial Status:

Analysis of the data has revealed that money power and muscle power have a large bearing on the Chances of winning of a candidate.

  • Average Assets of MPs/MLAs with Criminal Cases: The average assets of 2575 MPs/MLAs (analyzed since 2004) with Criminal cases is Rs. 4.30 Crores and for 1187 MPs/MLAs with serious criminal charges has been Rs. 4.38 Crores.

 

No. of Candidates Analyzed

No. of MPs/MLAs Analyzed

No. of MPs/MLAs with criminal cases

No. of MPs/MLAs with Serious Charges

Total

62847

8790

2575

1187

Average Assets

Rs. 1.37 Crores

Rs. 3.83 Crores

Rs. 4.30 Crores

Rs. 4.38 Crores

Table: Candidates and Average Assets

Re contesting Candidates (Candidates for whom affidavits are available for more than 1 election)

Financial:

  • Total Number of Recontesting Candidates Analyzed: 4181 Recontesting candidates have been analyzed by ADR and NEW.
  • Overall Increase in Wealth of Re contesting Candidates: Of 4181 candidates who contested more than one election, 3173 showed an increase in wealth. The average increase in wealth of all 4181 re contesting candidates has been  Rs.2.34crores.The average assets of these 4181 recontesting candidates has grown  from Rs.1.74 crores to Rs.4.08 crores.
  • Those Recontesting candidates only whose wealth has grown: Among those who showed an increase in assets, the increase was Rs 2.85 crores on average.  This meant an average increase of 134% in declared wealth over less than 5 years.
  • Re contesting candidates with asset growth more than 200%: About 1615 of the 4181 candidates showed an increase of over 200%, 684 showed an increase of over 500%, 420 of over 800% and 317 of over 1000%. This is clearly an abnormal increase in wealth.

Criminal:

  • Candidates with Criminal Cases get party tickets for the second time: : Analysis of the criminal records of 4181 repeat candidates shows that 1072 of them had a criminal case the first time they contested an election and 788 had cases the second time also. This means political parties gave tickets to 74% of candidates with criminal records the second time also despite having information on their criminal background from previous elections. However the total number of candidates with criminal cases still increased the second time as there were 507 other candidates (out of 4181) who showed no criminal cases in the first election but declared cases in the second round of elections. Therefore the total percent of candidates with criminal records given tickets by political parties rose from 26% to 31%.
  • Candidates with Serious Criminal cases get party tickets for the second time: If we look at serious criminal cases a similar picture emerges. Of 540 candidates with serious charges, 353 or 65% were given tickets for the second time also. In addition to them there were 289 other candidates with no criminal cases in the first election, but who had declared cases in the second round of elections. This also shows that the total percent of candidates with serious criminal records given tickets by political parties rose from 12% to 15%.
  • Pendency of Criminal Cases against Re contesting Candidates: Cases against 788 contesting candidates have been pending since their declarations in the previous election. This means that these candidates with pending criminal cases continue to contest elections, while charges against them remaining pending in Courts without any resolution and some of them even continue to sit as people’ representatives.

Party wise Analysis of all Candidates analyzed since 2004

Criminal:

  • Party wise MPs/MLAs who have declared criminal cases: 75% of MPs/MLAs who have got  elected on Shiv Sena (SS) tickets since 2004 have declared criminal cases against themselves (Out of 137 MPs/MLAs from SS, 103 have declared criminal cases). 46% of MPs/ MLAs elected on RJD tickets since 2004 have declared criminal cases against themselves (Out of 125 MPs/MLAs analyzed, 58 have declared criminal cases). 44% of representatives elected on JD (U) tickets since 2004 have declared criminal cases against themselves (Out of 272 MPs/MLAs analyzed, 120 have declared criminal cases).
  • Party wise BJP & INC MPs/MLAs who have declared criminal cases: 31% of MPs/MLAs elected on BJP tickets since 2004 have declared criminal cases against themselves (Out of the 1689 MPs/MLAs from BJP, 520 have declared criminal cases). 22% of MPs, MLAs and MLCs elected on INC tickets since 2004 have declared criminal cases against themselves (Out of the 2451 MPs/MLAs from INC, 527 have declared criminal cases against themselves).

Financial:

  • Party wise Average Assets of Candidates: The average assets Candidates who have contested on SAD tickets since 2004 is Rs. 6.02 Crores and is the highest amongst all the Parties analyzed followed by TDP candidates with average assets of Rs. 5.61 Crores and JD (S) candidates with average assets of Rs. 4.72 Crores. The average asset of candidates who have contested on INC tickets since 2004 is Rs. 4.32 Crores and of candidates who have contested on BJP tickets since 2004 is Rs. 1.79 Crores.
  • Party wise Average Assets of MPs/MLAs: Since 2004, MPs/MLAs who have got elected on TDP tickets have the highest average asset of Rs. 8.72 Crores followed by MPs/MLAs who have got elected on JD (S) tickets having average assets of Rs. 7.72 Crores. In third place are MPs/MLAs who have since 2004 been elected on SAD tickets with average assets of Rs. 6.27 Crores. Independent MPs/MLAs have an average of Rs. 7.23 Crores. The average assets of MPs/MLAs elected on INC tickets since 2004 is Rs. 5.81 Crores and of MPs/MLAs elected on BJP tickets since 2004 is Rs. 2.88 Crores.
Correlation between Criminal Cases declared by candidates and their chances of winning:

  • Total Candidates with Clean Records: Out of the 62847 contesting candidates analyzed since 2004, 51784 have been candidates who have not declared any criminal cases, whereas 11063 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
  • Total MPs/MLAs with Clean Records: Out of the 8790 MPs/MLAs analyzed since 2004, 6215 have been MPs/MLAs who have not declared any criminal cases, whereas 2575 MPs/MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
  • Chances of winning election with clean record: There is only 12% chance of winning election with a clean record. This means that a candidate having a clean record contesting on a party’ ticket has only 12% chance of winning the election (Chances of winning with clean record= No. of winners with clean record/No. of candidates with clean record)
  • Chances of winning election with serious criminal record: There is 23% chance of winning an election with serious criminal record. Therefore chances of winning an election with a serious criminal record are higher than the chance of winning with a clean record. Chances of winning with serious criminal cases(No.of winners with serious cases/No.of candidates with serious cases) 

 Coorelation between Education and Criminal Cases:

  • Candidates who are Graduates (or above) and have declared criminal cases: 27272 out of 62847 Candidates who have contested elections since 2004 (or 43% of the Candidates analyzed) have a graduate degree or above. 5248 or 19% of the candidates with graduate or above degrees have declared criminal cases. 2317 or 8% of the candidates with graduate or above degrees have declared serious criminal charges.
  • Candidates who are 12th Pass (or below) and have criminal cases: 35575 out of 62847 candidates who have contested elections since 2004 (or 57% of the Candidates analyzed) are 12th Pass and below.  5815 or 16% of the Candidates who are 12th pass and below have declared criminal cases. 2936 or 8% have declared serious criminal charges.
  • MPs/MLAs who are Graduates (or above) and have declared criminal cases: 5384 or 61% out of the total 8790 MPs/MLAs who have contested elections since 2004 are graduates or above. 1436 or 27% of the 5384 MPs/MLAs with a graduate degree or above have declared criminal cases and 634 or 12% have declared serious criminal charges.
  • MPs/MLAs who are 12th Pass (or below) and have declared criminal cases: 3406 or 39% of the MPs/MLAswho have contested elections since 2004 are 12th pass and below. 1139 or 33% of the 3406 MPs/MLAs who are 12th pass and below have declared criminal cases and 553 or 16% have declared serious criminal charges.

Coorelation between Education and Financial Status:

  • Average Assets of Candidates who are Graduate and above: The Average asset of Candidates analyzed who have contested elections since 2004 with Graduate or above degree is Rs. 1.96 Crores.
  • Average Assets of Candidates who are 12th Pass and below: The Average Assets of candidates analyzed who have contested elections since 2004, and are 12th pass and below, is Rs. 91.64 lakhs.

 

No. of Candi-dates

No.

of MPs/MLAs

No. of Candi-

dates with Criminal Charges

% Candi-dates with Criminal Charges

No. of Candi-

dates with Serious Criminal Charges

% Candi-dates with Serious Criminal Charges

No. of MPs/MLAs with Criminal charges

% MPs/MLAs with Criminal charges

No. of MPs/MLAs

with

Serious Criminal charges

% MPs/MLAs with

Serious Criminal charges

 

Average Assets

Graduate

27272

5384

5248

19%

2317

8%

1436

27%

634

12%

Rs. 1.96 Crores

Non-Graduate

35575

3406

5815

16%

2936

8%

1139

33%

553

16%

Rs. 91.64 Lakhs

Table:-Analysis of Graduate and Non-Graduate Candidates with declared criminal cases

Gender Analysis:

  • Women Candidates: Out of the 62847 Candidates analysed (who have contested elections since 2004), only 4148 or 7% are Women. Only 675 or 16% of the Women Candidates fielded have won whereas 8115 or 14% of the Men fielded have won.
  • Women Candidates with criminal cases: 414 or 10% of the 4148 Women Candidates who have contested in elections since 2004 have declared criminal cases and 161 or 4% declared serious criminal charges. 10649 or 18% of the 58699 Men Candidates declared criminal cases and 5092 or 9% declared serious criminal charges.
  • Women MLAs with criminal cases: 111 or 16% of the 675 MPs/MLAs (who have been elected in elections since 2004), who are Women, have declared criminal cases and 37 or 6% have declared serious criminal charges. 2464 or 30% of the 8115 MPs/MLAs, who are Men, have declared criminal cases and 1150 or 14% have declared serious criminal charges.
  • Average Assets of Men/Women Candidates: The Average asset of Men Candidates who have contested elections since 2004 is Rs. 1.36 Crores and the Average asset of Women Candidates is Rs. 1.46 Crores.    

 

No. of Candidates

No. of MPs/MLAs

No. of Candidates with Criminal Charges

% Candidates with Criminal Charges

No. of Candidates with Serious Criminal Charges

% Candidates with Serious Criminal Charges

No. of MPs/MLAs with Criminal charges

% MPs/MLAs with Criminal charges

No. of MPs/MLAs with Serious Criminal charges

% MPs/MLAs with Serious Criminal charges

 

Average Assets

Men

58699

8115

10649

18%

5092

9%

2464

30%

1150

14%

Rs. 1.36 Crores

Women

4148

675

414

10%

161

4%

111

16%

37

6%

Rs. 1.46 Crores




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