13 pc of candidates in upcoming polls have criminal cases

Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will go to polls with 879 candidates with pending criminal cases.

‎The data provided by the Association for Democratic Reforms states that‎ 13 per cent of the contesting candidates (879 out of 6,870 candidates) from five states had self declared pending criminal cases as per their affidavits during the 2008 assembly elections. In the 2008 assembly elections 394 (6 per cent) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

‎‎21 per cent of MLAs (128 out of 607 MLAs) from these five states have self declared pending criminal cases. 47 MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Among the five states Delhi has maximum percentage (43 per cent) of MLAs with declared criminal cases against them followed by Madhya Pradesh (25 per cent) among the five states.

Madhya Pradesh has highest percentage (11 per cent) of MLAs with serious criminal cases followed by Delhi and Chhattisgarh with 9 per cent. Mizoram, with 7 per cent has the lowest percentage of MLAs with criminal cases among the five states.

‎‎Among major parties the Indian National Congress had fielded 30 per cent tainted candidates in Delhi, 31 per cent in Madhya Pradesh during 2008 Assembly elections.

About 35 per cent candidates of the BJP had criminal cases in Delhi while 22 per cent tainted candidates were given tickets in the 2008 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

In Delhi, 38 per cent of MLAs from INC and 46% of MLAs from BJP have criminal cases against them. In Madhya Pradesh 34 per cent of INC MLAs and 20 per cent of MLAs of BJP have self declared criminal cases.

‎‎264 (43%) MLAs out of the 607 analysed from the five states are crorepatis while 837 (12%) candidates out of 6870were crorepatis.

‎Delhi has the highest percentage (69 pc) of crorepati MLAs followed by Rajasthan with 46 per cent. Madhya Pradesh has 38 per cent.‎‎‎‎ Out of 7,520 candidates contested during 2008 assembly elections in five states; only 8 per cent (564) were women candidates. Lowest percentage of women candidates were fielded in Mizoram (4 per cent), while Delhi and Chhattisgarh states recorded 9 per cent women candidates, which was the highest among the five states.

‎‎Out of 630 MLAs from the five state assemblies only 67 (11 per cent) are women. Rajasthan has the highest percentage of women MLAs (14 per cent), while Mizoram assembly has no women representation. Delhi has only 4 per cent women MLAs.