Maha civic polls: 9% of candidates face criminal cases

Two NGOs have analysed self-sworn affidavits of 1,244 of the 1,284 candidates contesting polls in three civic bodies in Maharashtra and found 9 per cent of them face criminal cases, while 10 per cent are crorepatis.
Municipal corporation of Latur, Parbhani and Chandrapur are going to the polls on April 19.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Maharashtra Election Watch (MEW) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,244 of the 1,284 candidates who are in fray for the 201 seats in these urban civic bodies.
According to the NGOs, 114 of these nominees (9%) have declared that criminal cases are pending against them.

Sixty-four of them (5%) face serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, dacoity and robbery, among others, they said in a statement today.
Of the 190 candidates fielded by Congress, 24 (13%) face criminal cases. This is followed by BJP 188 candidates - 18 (10%) - Shiv Sena 158 candidates - 15 (10%) and NCP 151 candidates - 14 (9%), it said.
Of the 1,244 candidates analysed, 125 (10%) are crorepatis. A majority of them are from BJP (23%) followed by Congress (16%), NCP (13%) and Shiv Sena (10%), the statement said.
The average asset per candidate for this election was over Rs 50 Lakh.