17% candidates have criminal background

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 30

Seventeen per cent of the 673 candidates that are in the fray for the Delhi Assembly elections have criminal cases registered against them, said election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) today. Analysing the self-sworn affidavits of all 673 candidates, the ADR has found that 34 per cent (230) of the candidates are crorepatis, 117 are Class X pass and 26 are illiterate. According to the data released by the ADR, 114 candidates have declared criminal cases in their nomination papers in comparison to 130 (16%) out of 796 candidates in the 2013 Assembly elections. Of the 114 candidates, 74 of them have declared serious criminal cases against them, including murder, attempt to murder, assault, loss to exchequer and crimes against women. Twenty seven (39%) of the total candidates with criminal background belong to the BJP, 23 (33%) are from the AAP and 21 (30%) are Congress contenders. “At least 261 candidates have not declared their income tax details and six candidates with assets more than Rs 1 crore have not declared PAN details,” Jagdeeo Chhokar, founder member of ADR, said. The report shows that the Congress has the richest candidates with 84 per cent crorepatis followed by BJP (72%) and AAP (63%). While the highest number of Class XII pass candidates has been fielded by the parties this time, 26 illiterates are also in the fray.