New Delhi: A total of 321 out of 2,071 candidates from 117 seats that will go to polls on April 24 in the sixth phase have criminal cases against them.
30 out of 94 candidates from Congress, 20 out of 77 candidates from BJP, 13 out of 91 candidates from AAP, 27 out of 111 candidates fielded by BSP and 76 out of 972 independent candidates have declared that they face criminal cases in their self-sworn affidavits filed to the Election Commission, according to a report by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Out of these, two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates have declared more than 350 criminal cases registered against them.
"Out of the 2071 candidates analysed, 321 (15 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of that 204 candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, robbery and others," the report said.
"Udayakumar S P of AAP from Kanniyakumari constituency, Tamil Nadu has declared 382 criminal cases against himself followed by M Pushparayan of AAP from Thoothukkudi constituency with 380 criminal cases.
"Mu Anbhalagan of DMK from Tiruchirappalli constituency has 10 criminal cases against him," it further added.
The analysis found that 11 candidates have declared cases related to murder while 40 candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder.
Thirteen candidates have declared cases related to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony (IPC section-153A).
The report found that 12 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women.
"Pankaj Kumar Singh an CPI(ML)(L) candidate from Purnia constituency, Bihar has declared a case related buying minor for purposes of prostitution," it said.
Apart from analysing the criminal background of candidates, the report also analysed the financial, education, gender and other details of candidates and found that out of the 2071 candidates analysed, 504 are 'crorepatis'
.
