Bihar, J'khand top candidates with criminal charges

New Delhi: This may not come as a surprise to many. Bihar tops the list of states with most criminally-charged candidates, followed closely by Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (UP), according to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO working for transparency in the electoral process.

The information was retrieved from affidavits of 1,440 of the 1,715 candidates who have filed nominations for the first phase of the Lok Sabha election starting in less than a week.

Anil Bairwal of ADR said they found 222 (16%) of the 1,425 candidates whose affidavits have been analysed so far having criminal charges against them. According to the NGO, 51 of the 200, that is over 25%, Bihar candidates analysed have criminal cases against them.

The other states that score high on this count are Jharkhand (17 of 79 candidates, i.e. 21.52%), Maharashtra (42 of 242, 17.35%) and UP (46 of 268, 17.16%). Bihar also has the highest number (10) of 'Red Hot Constituencies' -- constituencies with three or more criminal candidates. Maharashtra comes a close second with eight, UP seven, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand five each and Orissa two.

Jagdip Chokar of ADR said, "Parties and leaders argue the cases are frivolous, not of a serious nature. I would say these are cases in which charges have been framed by courts, which happens after a case has been registered, investigated by a government agency and charge-sheets admitted in court. It seems incredulous to me that you call such cases frivolous."

Of the total 571 criminal cases registered against candidates, 306 are serious in nature, with charges such as murder, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, etc. CPI (ML) has most criminal candidates (8 of 13, 61.5%), Congress 24 of 93 (25.81%), BJP 23 of 79 (29.11%), BSP 17 of 88 (19.32%) and SP 10 of 23 (43.48%).

193 crorepatis
There were 193 crorepatis in the fray (14% contesting election in the first phase). Congress has 45, BJP 30 and BSP 22. "The percentage of crorepatis has increased from 9 in 2004 to 14 in 2009," ADR said. Average assets per candidate are: Congress worth Rs4.3 crore, NCP Rs10.6 crore and BJP Rs2 crore.

Helpline
ADR has launched a nationwide helpline (1800-110-440) for people who want to know details of candidates in their constituency. "People can also SMS 'neta, followed by space, followed by their pin code' to 56070," Anil Bairwal said.

Source : DNA