The analysis of the sworn affidavits of candidates in the fray for the Vasai-Virar Municipal elections has revealed that nearly 38 per cent of them have criminal or serious criminal cases registered against them.

The analysis was released by election watch group Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Wednesday in preparation for the June 14 election. The local Lokhitwadi party, which has fielded 10 candidates, led the list with 40 per cent of its candidates having serious criminal cases followed by the Congress party with 14 of their 34 candidates having criminal cases against their names. Of the affidavits analysed for financial background, 30 per cent candidates have declared themselves to be crorepatis of which two candidates have assets worth over Rs 100 crore.

An ADR member from the Maharashtra Election Watch team said, “There are 371 candidates in the fray out of which we analysed the affidavits of 329 candidates. All the parties that include local, state and national level ones have fielded candidates with criminal or serious criminal cases against them. In fact, some of the independents in the fray also have criminal and serious criminal cases against them,” said the member. Out of the 329 candidates, 92 candidates have either type of cases declared in their affidavits.

While the Lokhitwadi party has the maximum number of candidates with criminal cases, the Congress has 14 followed by Shiv Sena with 20 and 19 from independents. The Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA )and BJP have fielded 24 and seven candidates with criminal cases.

Among the crorepati candidates, Hitendra Thakur with Rs 158 crore and Pankaj Thakur with Rs 128 crore head the list of crorepatis. Both the candidates are from the BVA and 54 per cent of the party’s candidates in the fray are crorepatis, according to the report.