Of the 440 BJP candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections, 19 have declared criminal cases in their election affidavits, according to an analysis by an election rights body.
Of the 327 Congress candidates, 143 or 44 per cent have declared criminal cases, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report based on data compiled from affidavits on the Election Commission website.
It said these cases include cases related to murder, attempt to murder, crimes against women and hate speech.
The ADR said data obtained from the poll panel's website showed that "a significant portion of the candidates contesting the elections have self-declared criminal cases against them".
It said the analysis presents details of candidates with declared criminal cases party-wise.Among major parties, 191 (43 per cent) candidates from the Bharatiya Janata Party have declared criminal cases, while 143 (44 per cent) from the Congress have declared criminal cases, the report said.
The report also highlights the number of candidates facing serious criminal cases.
According to the report, one hundred and thirty of the total BJP candidates fielded in the elections have declared serious criminal cases, while for the Congress, the number is 88 (2 percent of the total candidates fielded by it).
Samajwadi Party has 71 candidates in the election and 40 have declared criminal cases, of which 30 are accused of serious crimes.
Thirty-three out of 52 candidates of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have declared criminal cases, of which 18 have serious charges, and in the Trinamool Congress, 20 out of 48 candidates have declared criminal cases and 12 have serious charges.The state-wise analysis also provides information about the prevalence of candidates with criminal background.
For example, out of 1,119 candidates contesting elections in Maharashtra, 266 have declared criminal cases, including 183 for serious offences. Of the 945 candidates in Tamil Nadu, 137 have criminal cases against them, while 83 are facing serious charges.
In Uttar Pradesh, 213 out of 851 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, of which 179 have serious offenses registered against them.
There are 104 candidates out of 524 in Telangana, 112 out of 507 in West Bengal and 115 out of 496 in Bihar.Jharkhand has 69 candidates out of 242 candidates, Odisha has 52 candidates out of 207 candidates and Kerala has 67 candidates out of 189 candidates.
In Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, 69 out of 328 candidates and 88 out of 450 candidates have declared criminal cases, respectively. The report said that 25 out of 162 candidates in Delhi have declared criminal cases.