Criminal cases against 331 candidates in AP polls: Report

As many as 331 (17 per cent) out of 2,007 candidates in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections have declared criminal cases against themselves while 220 (11 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases, as per Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The election watchdog has analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 2,007 out of 2,118 candidates.

As many as 14 candidates have declared cases related to murder, 40 related to attempt to murder against themselves while 24 candidates have declared convicted cases against themselves.

Among major parties, 48 (28 per cent) out of 172 candidates analysed from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), 97 (57 per cent) out of 171 candidates analysed from YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), 19 (11 per cent) out of 169 candidates analysed from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 23 (14 per cent) out of 166 candidates analysed from Congress and 26 (21 per cent) out of 127 candidates from Janasena Party, have declared criminal cases against themselves.

As many as 27 (16 per cent) TDP candidates, 57 (33 per cent) YSCRP candidates, 10 (6 per cent) BJP candidates, 16 (10 per cent) Congress candidates and 17 (13 per cent)Janasena Party candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

As many as 28 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women such as assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

About 45 (26per cent) out of 175 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Out of the 2007 candidates, 632 are crorepatis as against 470 in 2014.

Among major parties, 157 (91 per cent) are from TDP, 159 (93 per cent) from YSRCP, 64 (38 per cent) from BJP, 60 (36 per cent) from Congress and 83 (65 per cent) from Janasena Party, who have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate analysed in the elections is Rs 5.82 crore.

TDP candidate Krishnaiah Bollineni is the richest candidate in the fray with assets of Rs 689 crore while Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP candidate from Kuppam N. Chandrababu Naidu is the third richest with total assets of Rs 668 crore.

Samaanya Praja Party candidate Dagguluri Venkata Ramana has declared lowest assest of Rs 304.

There are 54 candidates who have declared zero assets.

As many as 1,029 (51 per cent) candidates analysed have not declared their ITR details while a total of 168 (8 per cent) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

With total assets of Rs 510 crore, YSRCP candidate Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy tops the list of candidates with high income as he has shown Rs 38 crore in the ITR in last financial year.

About 901(45 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th, while 957 (48 per cent) are graduate or above.

As many as 18 candidates are literate.

There are 66 candidates who are illiterate while 10 candidates have not given their educational qualifications details.

As many as 648 (32 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 1,128 (56 per cent) candidates who are between 41 to 60 years.

There are 220 (11 per cent) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

As many as four candidates have declared their age to be above 80 years while 7 candidates have not given their age.

There are 193 (10 per cent) female candidates that are contesting in the assembly election this year. In 2014, there number was 120 (9 per cent) out of 1,309 candidates.

--IANS

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