Lok Sabha elections: Number of women candidates rises to 617 till phase-6

Data on candidate details up to the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls has revealed that the number of women candidates has risen to 617. 

The total number of women candidates for this phase is 83. Polling for phase six will take place on May 12 while the earlier phase (fifth) is on May 6.

The total number of candidates for phase six is 979. Of this, the affidavits of 967 candidates have been analysed in a report prepared by non-governmental organisations the National Election Watch as well as Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and released on Friday. 

Some couldn’t be analysed because of incompleteness or unavailability of properly scanned documents. The figure is based on analysed affidavits. The proportion of women candidates has actually dipped in the sixth phase. It is down to nine per cent compared to 12 per cent in phase five. Candidates with criminal cases continue to outnumber women. In fact, twice the proportion of phase six candidates have criminal cases against them (that is, 20 per cent).

This is consistent with earlier rounds of polls. Those with criminal cases against them account for 19 per cent of the candidates across phases.

Six candidates have cases related to murder, 25 have cases of attempt to murder and five related to kidnapping in phase six. Twenty one candidates have cases of crime against women. This includes assault or crime to outrage the modest of a woman and cruelty. “Two candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section 376),” noted the report. A total of 11 candidates have cases related to hate speech against them.

Candidates with assets of more than Rs 1 crore outnumber both women and those with criminal records.

The average assets of candidates for the sixth phase of elections is Rs 3.41 crore. The richest candidate is the Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia with assets worth Rs 374 crore. This is followed by former cricketer Gautam Gambhir (BJP candidate) with assets of Rs 147 crore. Virender Rana from Haryana’s Gurgaon constituency is third with assets of Rs 102 crore. One candidate, Rajib Mahato, from the Purulia constituency in West Bengal, has declared zero assets.

But the overall proportion of candidates with assets of more than Rs 1 crore is 32 per cent in phase six (311 in number). There are 2,018 such candidates so far in the first six phases of elections. They acco­unt for 29 per cent of all candidates, across phases. They include members from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

“Among the major parties, 46 (85 per cent) out of the 54 candidates from BJP, 37(80 per cent) out of the 46 candidates from Congress, 31(63 per cent) out of the 49 candidates from BSP, six (50 per cent) out of the 12 candidates from AAP and 71 (23 per cent) out of the 307 independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore,” said the report.