Nineteen percent of the candidates contesting in the second phase of polling in the Gujarat Assembly Elections declared criminal cases against them, according to the Gujarat Election Watch, the Gujarat chapter of National Election Watch.
The National Election Watch is a conglomeration of over 1,200 civil society organisations working on political and electoral reforms.
“A total of 58 candidates have declared that charges have been framed against them with cases of kidnapping, murder etc.,” the report stated, citing criminal details of contesting candidates for the second phase of Gujarat Assembly Elections.
As part of its analysis, the GEW scrutinised 402 candidates out of 820 candidates who are contesting in the second phase. Of the 402 candidates, 78—or 19 percent—declared criminal cases against them. In the 2007 Assembly elections the total number of candidates—for the whole of Gujarat—who had declared criminal cases was 23 percent.
The major parties, whose candidates declared criminal cases are, 33 percent of the Congress (28 out of 87), 28 percent of BJP (26 out of 93), 6 percent in BSP, 7 percent in JD(U), 5 percent of the SP, 50 percent (3 out of 6 candidates) of the NCP and 18 percent of the GPP (13 out of 74) candidates.
Out of these 78 candidates with declared criminal cases, 40 are with serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, rape etc. Among them, 58 have charges framed against them.