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Sixteen% of contestants in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections have criminal cases against them, with Jharkhand topping the list among 12 states, followed by Bihar and Maharahtra.
An analysis for 12 states where election will be held on April 17, released today by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed 28% candidates in Jharkhand have criminal cases followed by Bihar (26%) and Maharashtra (21%).
12 candidates have murder cases against them while 27 have declared cases of attempt to murder in their affidavits, the analysis said.
"Twelve candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. Dambale Rahul Dharma an Independent candidate from Pune constituency, Maharashtra has declared a case related to rape," the report said.
The analysis based on the self-sworn affidavits of 1739 candidates out of 1761 candidates who are contesting in the Phase five of Lok Sabha 2014 elections, said BJP outnumbered Congress in giving tickets to candidates with criminal backgrounds for the fifth phase.
22 out of 101 candidates (22%) from Congress, 30 out of 105 candidates (29%) from BJP, 16 out of 108 candidates (15%) from AAP, 22 out of 118 candidates(19%) fielded by BSP and 66 out of 680 (10%) independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the report said.
Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, which have one Lok Sabha seat each, have no candidates with criminal background out of their 13 and 8 candidates respectively.
According to the analysis, 27% of the total candidates are 'crorepatis'. Infosys co-founder and Congress candidate from Bangalore South, Nandan Nilekani, has total assets to the tune of Rs 7,710 crore.
