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Twenty-five per cent candidates in the fray for the 117 seats of the Punjab assembly have criminal cases and 57 constituencies have three or more candidates with criminal cases, an analysis by the Punjab Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Friday.
It analysed the affidavits of 1,276 candidates out of the 1,304 for the February 20 polling.
Of the 1,276 candidates, 228 are from national parties, 256 state parties, 345 registered unrecognised parties and 447 are Independents.
They say they have not analysed 28 candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete were not uploaded on the Election Commission of India website.
A total of 315 (25 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, out of the 1,145 candidates analysed, 100 (nine per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves.
This time, 218 (17 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, which was 77 (seven per cent) in 2017.
Among the major parties, 60 (63 per cent) out of 96 candidates analysed belonging to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Twenty-seven (23 per cent) of the 117 candidates belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 15 (21 per cent) of the 71 candidates to the BJP, three (21 per cent) of the 14 candidates to Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), three (15 per cent) of the 20 candidates to the BSP, nine (eight per cent) of the 117 candidates to the Congress and two (seven per cent) of the 27 candidates to the Punjab Lok Congress have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in the affidavits.
Fifteen candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. This includes two candidates who have declared cases related to rape against themselves. Four have declared cases related to murder. Thirty-three candidates have declared cases related to attempted murder against themselves.
Regarding assets, 521 (41 per cent) of the 1,276 candidates are millionaires, up from 37 per cent or 428 of the 1,145 candidates in the 2017 polls.
Among the major parties 89 (93 per cent) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 107 (92 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from the Congress, 60 (85 per cent) out of 71 candidates analysed from the BJP, 16 (80 per cent) out of 20 candidates analysed from the BSP, 11 (79 per cent) out of 14 candidates analysed from the SAD (Sanyukt), 81 (69 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP and 16 (59 per cent) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.
The average assets per candidate contesting the elections are Rs 4.31 crore. In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, the average assets per candidate for 1,145 candidates were Rs 3.49 crore.
--IANS
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