The third phase will see the maximum number of seats going to polls in this election spread across 12 states and 2 Union territories.
Phase 3 of the Lok Sabha election 2019 takes place today, April 23.
This phase covers the maximum number of seats spread across 12 states and 2 Union Territories.
1,612 candidates will contest 115 Lok Sabha seats.
Accoding to the data collected by the Association for Democratic Reforms, 340 (21%) of the 1,594 candidates ADR analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Similarly, 230(14%) of the candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
The Congress has fielded 90 candidates in the third phase of which 40 (44%) have criminal cases registered against them.
38 (39%) of the BJP's 97 candidates, 16 (17%) of the BSP's 92 candidates, 11 (58%) of the CPI-M's 19 candidates, 7 (32%) of the Shiv Sena's 22 candidates, 5 (50%) of the Samajwadi Party's 10 candidates, 6 (60%) of the Nationalist Congress Party's 10 candidates and 4 (44%) of the Trinamool's 9 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
26 of the BJP's 97 candidates have serious criminal cases registered against them.
Of the 90 Congress candidates, 24 have serious criminal cases.
9 BSP candidates, 6 Shiv Sena candidates, 6 CPI-M candidates, 5 NCP nominees, 4 SP candidates and 4 Trinamool candidates have serious criminal cases.
When it comes to wealth, there are 392 (25%) crorepati candidates in the fray.
81 (84%) of the BJP's 97 candidates are crorepatis.
74 (82%) of the Congress's 90 candidates, 9 (90%) of the SP's 10 candidates, 10 (53%) CPI-M candidates, 12 (13%) BSP candidates, 9 (41%) Shiv Sena candidates and 7 (70%) NCP candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore
In the third phase, Samajwadi Party candidate Devendra Singh Yadav, who is contesting from Etah in Uttar Pradesh, is the wealthiest candidate with declared assets of Rs 204 crore/Rs 2.04 billion.
Nationalist Congress Party candidate Udayanraje Pratapasinh from Satara, Maharashtra, has declared assets of Rs 199 crore/Rs 1.99 billon.
The third richest candidate, Praveen Singh Aron fighting on the Congress ticket from Bareilly in UP, has declared assets of Rs 147 crore/Rs 1.47 billion.
In the third phase, 11 candidates have declared 0 assets.
The poorest candidate in the fray is Shrivenkateshwar Maha Swamiji fighting on the Hindustan Janta Party ticket from Bijapur, Karnataka. He has declared assets of Rs 9.
When it comes to education, 788 (49%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between Class 5 and Class 12.
681 (43%) candidates have declared an educational qualification of graduate or above.
57 candidates have declared they are just literate and 23 candidates are illiterate.
562 (35%) of the candidates in Phase 3 have declared their ages to be between 25 and 40 years.
760 (48%) candidates have declared their ages to be between 41 and 60 years.
265 (17%) candidates have declared their ages to be between 61 and 80 years.
3 candidates have declared their ages to be above 80 years.
4 candidates have not given their age.
In Phase 3, the ratio of male to females candidates is very low.
1,450 (91%) male candidates are contesting this phase while only 143 (9%) female candidates are in the fray.
One candidate from the third gender is also contesting the election.
Text: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com. Data: Association for Democratic Reforms
