LS polls: 16% of candidates contesting in Phase 1 accused in criminal cases

Out of the 16%, 7 candidates have cases related to murder, 18 have declared cases related to crimes against women, and 35 candidates have cases related to hate speech against them

Lok Sabha election 2024: A report by the National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed that 16 per cent of candidates contesting in Phase 1 of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, amounting to 252 out of 1,618 individuals, have criminal cases listed against them. This analysis was based on the self-sworn affidavits of 1,618 out of 1,625 candidates contesting Phase 1.

According to the ADR report, out of the 252 (16 per cent) candidates with criminal cases, 161 (10 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against them. Seven candidates have cases related to murder, 18 have declared cases related to crimes against women, including rape, and 35 candidates have cases related to hate speech against them.

Party-wise breakdown

The report also revealed that 28 out of 77 (36 per cent) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates and 19 out of 56 (34 per cent) Congress candidates have accepted having criminal cases filed against them. All four (100 per cent) candidates of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are facing cases.

Meanwhile, the figures for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Samajwadi Party (SP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are 59 per cent, 43 per cent, 40 per cent, and 13 per cent, respectively.

 

Asset analysis

The ADR report revealed that among the 1,618 candidates analysed, 450 (28 per cent) possess assets worth Rs 1 crore or more. In the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has fielded 69 crorepati candidates (90 per cent), while the Congress has nominated 49 crorepati candidates (88 per cent).

Furthermore, ten contenders in the first phase have declared zero assets in their affidavits. The average asset per candidate contesting is Rs 4.51 crore.

The average assets per candidate for different parties are as follows: 77 BJP candidates have an average of Rs 22.37 crore, 56 INC candidates have Rs 27.79 crore, 22 DMK candidates have Rs 31.22 crore, 4 RJD candidates have an average of Rs 8.93 crore, 7 SP candidates have an average of Rs 6.67 crore, and 5 AITC candidates have an average of Rs 3.72 crore.

Top candidates by assets

The top three candidates with the highest assets are Congress’ Nakul Nath (over Rs 716 crore) from Madhya Pradesh, the AIADMK’s Ashok Kumar (over Rs 662 crore) from Tamil Nadu, and the BJP’s Dhevanathan Yadav T (over Rs 304 crore) from Tamil Nadu.

The three candidates with the lowest declared assets are from the Congress party.