Criminal case against 252 out of 1618 candidates of the first phase of elections

A total of 1618 candidates have filled the nomination forms for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. Of these, criminal cases have been registered against 16 percent i.e. 252. National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms have released these figures after analyzing the affidavits of the candidates.

It is noteworthy that the first phase of voting will be held on April 19 in which voting will be held for 102 Lok Sabha seats in 21 states. This time voting will be held in seven phases. After April 19, voting will take place on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.

Elections are to be held in seven phases in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The result will be declared on June 4. According to the ADR report, 10 percent of the candidates have serious cases registered against them. Cases of murder have been registered against seven candidates, crimes like rape against women against 18, cases of hate speech against 35 candidates.

According to the report, criminal cases are registered against 28 out of 77 BJP candidates and 19 out of 56 Congress candidates. Talking about RJD, a criminal case has been registered against all the four candidates of this phase.

The proportion of candidates with criminal cases from DMK, SP, TMC and BSP is 59, 43, 40 and 13 per cent respectively. Red alert has been issued on 42 out of 102 Lok Sabha constituencies. Let us tell you that red alert is issued for those seats where criminal cases are registered against more than three candidates.

According to the ADR report, out of 1618 candidates, more than 450 have assets worth more than one crore. 90 percent of BJP candidates are crorepatis. Whereas 88 percent of Congress candidates have assets worth more than one crore.

However, there are 10 candidates contesting in the first phase who have said that they do not have any property. The average asset of all the candidates is Rs 4.51 crore. The five Trinamool candidates have assets worth an average of Rs 3.72 crore. The top three candidates in terms of assets include Congress's Nakul Nath (over Rs 716 crore), AIADMK's Ashok Kumar (662 crore) and BJP's Devanathan Yadav T (304 crore). The candidates who have declared the least assets are from Congress.