New Delhi: On a day Narendra Modi vowed to cleanse the political system and Parliament of criminal elements if voted to power, an NGO has found that BJP has more candidates with criminal and "serious" criminal cases than Congress in the six phases of Lok Sabha elections.
As many as 36 (13 per cent) out of 287 candidates fielded by Congress, 48 (17 per cent) out of 279 candidates from BJP, 29 (10 per cent) out of 291 fielded by AAP and 39 (12 per cent) out of 318 BSP candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, data released by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed.
The consolidated data, released on Monday, is based on the analysis of affidavits of 5,380 candidates in the first six phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Polling for the sixth phase, covering 117 constituencies across the country, is scheduled to be held on Thursday.
Of the total contestants, 879 candidates (16 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. 533 (10 per cent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, rape and robbery. These includes 75 (26 per cent) out of 287 candidates fielded by Congress, 88 (32 per cent) out of 279 candidates from BJP, 44
(15 per cent) out of 291 fielded by AAP and 65 (20 per cent) out of 318 BSP candidates, it said.
Out of the 5,380 candidates analysed, 1,425 (27 per cent) are 'crorepatis'. About 239 (83 per cent) out of 287 candidates in Congress, 207 (74 per cent) out of 279 candidates in BJP, 127 (44 per cent) out of 291 candidates in AAP and 96 (30 per cent) out of 318 candidates in BSP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, the data said.
"The average assets per candidate contesting from Phase 1 to 6 of Lok Sabha 2014 elections is Rs 4.64 crore," the ADR said.
Among major parties, the average assets (per contestant) for 287 Congress candidates is Rs 41.01 crore, the ADR said.
279 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 10.15 crore, 291 AAP candidates have average assets worth of Rs 2.94 crore and 318 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 3.76 crore. As many as 1,585 candidates have not filed PAN card detail in their self-sworn affidavits filed before the EC.
Of the total candidates in poll fray, 67 are illiterate, 167 are literate, 269 are Class V qualified, 464 are Class VIII qualified, 862 are Class X qualified and 747 are Class XII qualified.
964 candidates are graduate, 875 are post-graduate and 139 have doctorates, while 72 others have not mentioned their educational qualification in their affidavits, it said.
Fifteen (16 per cent) out of 94 candidates from Congress, 12 (16 per cent) out of 77 candidates from BJP, 9 (10 per cent) out of 91 candidates from AAP, 17 (15 per cent) out of 111 candidates fielded by BSP and 43 (4 per cent) out of 972 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the data said.
The data is based on the analysis of affidavits of 2,071 candidates in the fray for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls.
Of these 321 (15 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. As many as 204 candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder and robbery, it said.
Of the total candidates contesting sixth phase of the ongoing general elections, 504 (24 per cent) are 'crorepatis'.
There are 77 (82 per cent) out of 94 candidates in Congress, 58 (75 per cent) out of 77 candidates in BJP, 41 (45 per cent) out of 91 candidates in AAP and 30 (27 per cent) out of 111 candidates in BSP and 71 (7 per cent) out of 972 Independent candidates have declared assets worth over Rs 1 crore, the ADR said.
Congress candidate from Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) Vasantha Kumar H has declared the highest of Rs 285 crore assets. He is followed by actress-turned-politician Hema Malini, who has declared assets worth about Rs 178 crore. She is contesting from Uttar Pradesh's Mathura seat.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Manish Ishwarlal Jain, contesting from Maharashtra's Raver seat, has declared assets worth about Rs 151 crore, it said.
A total of 2,077 candidates are contesting in sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Udayakumar S P of AAP from Kanniyakumari constituency, Tamil Nadu has declared 382 criminal cases against himself followed by M Pushparayan of AAP from Thoothukkudi seat with 380 criminal cases and Mu Anbhalagan of DMK from Tiruchirappalli with 10 criminal cases, the ADR said.
