423 Crorepatis, 251 Candidates With Criminal Cases In Lok Sabha Phase 2 Polls

The second phase of the Lok Sabha elections will be held tomorrow (on April 18th), where a total of 1,644 candidates from 97 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 states will test their luck.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog which analysed 1,590 of these candidates, found out that 251 (16%) of them have declared criminal cases against them.

Also, a total of 167 (11%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves—offences that are related to murder, crime against women, kidnapping and rape for which the maximum punishment is of 5 years or more.

Among the major parties, 16 (31%) out of 51 candidates from BJP, 23 (43%) out of 53 candidates from Congress, 16 (20%) out of 80 candidates from BSP, 3 (14%) out of 22 candidates analysed from AIADMK, 11 (46%) out of 24 candidates from DMK and 4 (36%) out of 11 candidates from Shiv Sena have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Moreover, 41 out of 97 are red alert constituencies, meaning that in these constituencies, three or more candidates contesting the elections have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The self-sworn affidavits, analysed by the National Election Watch and ADR, found that 209 candidates are from national parties, 107 are from state parties, 386 are from registered unrecognised parties and 888 candidates are contesting independently.

Financial Background

A total of 423 candidates (27%) contesting in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections are crorepatis, and have an average asset accumulation of Rs 3.9 crore.

176 candidates (11%) have assets worth Rs 5 crore and above and 108 of them (7%) between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore.

Among the major parties 46 (87%) out of 53 candidates from Congress, 45 (88%) out of 51 candidates from BJP, 23 (96%) out of 24 candidates from DMK, 22 (100%) candidates from AIADMK and 21 (26%) out of 80 candidates from BSP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

Also, the average assets per candidate for 80 BSP candidates is Rs. 1.94 crore, 53 INC candidates is Rs 31.83 crore, 51 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 21.59 crore, 24 DMK candidates have average assets worth Rs 25.91 crore, and 22 AIADMK candidates have average assets of Rs 14.27 crore.

Among other details, 697 (44%) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th, while 756 (48%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 35 candidates have declared to be just literate and 26 candidates are illiterate.

A total of 120 (8%) female candidates are contesting in the Lok Sabha Phase II elections.