In ‘Red Alert’ constituencies, three or more contested candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, the study of affidavits says
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a study of affidavits submitted by 191 candidates contesting in the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections showed that 48 or about 25% of them declared their criminal records. . ) Belongs to.
The report said that 42 candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Such offenses include offenses for which the maximum sentence is five years or more.
Among the major parties, 12 (or 41%) of the 29 candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); 10 (35%) out of 29 candidates of Trinamool Congress (TMC); 10 (56%) of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidates; Two out of six Congress candidates (33%); Three (11%) of the 28 Socialist Unity Center of India-Communist (SUCI-C); And one in 11 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidates (9%) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits. In all, 11 BJP candidates have serious criminal cases against themselves, such as nine CPI (M), eight TMC, one Congress and two SUCI (C) candidates.
While 12 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women, one of them faced rape charges. Eight candidates are involved in murder cases and 19 are involved in murder cases.
Of the 30 constituencies that went to the first phase of voting, seven are described as “red alert” constituencies. The report states that Red Alert constituencies are those where three or more contested candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
The ADR found that 19 out of 191 candidates were “millionaires”. Nine TMC candidates, four from BJP, two from CPI (M) and Congress and one each from SUCI (C) and BSP, had declared assets of more than 1 crore. The average of the assets of the candidate contesting in the first phase was about 43.77 lakhs.
According to the party, the average assets per candidate for TMC is ₹ 89.68 lakhs, followed by ₹ 85.28 lakhs for BJP; 80.50 lakhs for Congress; For CPI (M) for 41.10 lakhs; ₹ 27.07 lakh for BSP; And for SUCI (C). 21.56 Lakhs. Four candidates, BSP’s Anandi Tudu and Manas Sarkar and SUCI (C )’s Deepak Kumar and Bhagirath Mahato have declared zero assets.
In all, 73 (38%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits and 13 (7%) have not declared their PAN details.
The report stated that 96 (50%) candidates had declared their educational qualifications to be between Class V and Class XII, while 92 (48%) were undergraduates or above, and three were diploma holders. In terms of age, 53 (28%) candidates are between 25 and 40 years of age and 109 (57%) candidates are between 41 and 60 years of age. There are 29 (15%) candidates who have declared their age between 61 and 80 years.
A total of 21 (11%) women candidates are contesting in the first phase elections.
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