116 candidates in MCD polls face serious criminal cases

As many as 173 candidates in the April 23 civic elections face criminal cases while another 116 have serious cases of murder, kidnapping and crime against women pending against them, a report said on Tuesday.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said it went through the affidavits filed by 2,315 of the 2,537 candidates from 18 political parties, including six national parties, for the report.

Percentage-wise, candidates with criminal cases pending against them are around seven per cent, with those with serious criminal cases nearly five per cent of the analysed figure.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the highest number of candidates with criminal cases -- 35 of the 260 candidates, around 14 per cent of the total.

Among other parties, the Congress had eight per cent candidates with criminal records -- 21 of its 250 contestants. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has seven per cent candidates with criminal cases against them -- 13 out of 191 candidates whose affidavits were analysed.

Around 22 per cent of all analysed candidates hold assets between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore, while five per cent own assets worth between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore. Three per cent nominees had assets of more than Rs 10 crore each.

The BJP has the highest number of candidates with assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, with 163 or around 54 per cent of its candidate in this category.

The Congress has 104 contestants with assets of more than Rs 1 crore, which comes to 42 per cent, while the AAP has 41 such candidates or around 22 per cent of their contesting candidates analysed by the ADR.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in the MCD elections is Rs 1.61 crore.

The average assets held by each of the 260 BJP candidates comes to Rs 2.89 crore, with this figure for 256 Congress candidates coming to Rs 4.36 crore and for 250 AAP candidates to Rs 1.65 crore.

--IANS

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