Despite the stress on clean governance by the ruling BJP in the Centre, the candidates fielded in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections across party lines do not reflect that resolve. Over 10% of the candidates have some kind of criminal cases registered against them while around 7% are accused of serious cases like murder and kidnapping.
Some of the candidates fielded by various parties are even accused of culpable homicide and outraging the modesty of a woman.
Of all the 537 candidates analysed by Maharashtra Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), majority of those with criminal background were fielded by the NCP. Around 6% of Congress candidates have criminal cases against them and 7% of Shiv Sena candidates too are accused in several cases. There are 10% BJP candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Repeated attempts by iamin reporter to contact Shiv Sena spokesperson Vijay Nahata and BJP district president CV Reddy to seek a comment on the criminal backgrounds of their candidates failed.
| Party | Total number of cendidates analyzed | Candidates with declared criminal cases | % of candidates with declared criminal cases | Candidates with serious criminal cases | % of candidates with serious declared criminal cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) | 101 | 17 | 17% | 12 | 12% |
| Indian National Congress (INC) | 85 | 7 | 8% | 5 | 6% |
| Shiv Sena (SHS) | 61 | 11 | 18% | 7 | 12% |
| Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) | 42 | 5 | 12% | 4 | 10% |
| Pesants and Workers Party | 33 | 1 | 3% | 1 | 3% |
| Republican Party of India (Athavale) | 11 | 1 | 9% | 1 | 9% |
| Others | 32 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Independent (IND) | 172 | 11 | 6% | 10 | 6% |
| Total | 537 | 53 | 10% | 40 | 7% |
NCP's Sandeep Naik defended his partymen saying that no one is accused of serious crimes. He said, "You should see the candidates fielded by other parties. My candidates do not have charges of murder or rape against them."
