Money, muscle influence Punjab polls: Report

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, January 11

Candidates with muscle and money power have emerged victorious more than the others in the Punjab elections since 2004, says an exhaustive report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Punjab Election Watch in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

Against the average assets of Rs 3.5 crore declared by the candidates since 2004, the average assets of the elected MPs and MLAs stood at Rs 11.42 crore, showing the influence of money.

Among major parties, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) tops the chart of candidates facing criminal cases, while overall the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) has the highest ratio of such candidates. In the party-wise breakup, the report shows that 56 (14%) out of 406 candidates who have contested on Congress ticket have criminal cases against them.

As many as 71 (22%) of 325 candidates who contested on SAD ticket since 2004, eight (10%) of 83 BJP candidates, 15 (11%) of 142 AAP candidates, five (45%) of 11 LIP candidates and 104 (9%) of 1,175 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases.

The organisations have analysed election affidavits of 3,547 candidates and 413 MLAs/MPs fielded during the Vidhan Sabha and Parliament elections between 2004 and 2019. As per the report, 385 (11%) of the total 3,547 candidates and 69 (17%) of 413 MPs/MLAs declared criminal cases against themselves since 2004. Of these, 223 (6%) candidates and 32 (8%) MPs or MLAs had serious criminal cases against them.

The average assets declared by these candidates were Rs 3.5 crore and the average assets of the elected MPs and MLAs stood at Rs 11.42 crore.

ADR trustee Jaskirat Singh said: “The average assets of 385 candidates with declared criminal cases is Rs 6.62 crore. Of these, with serious criminal cases is Rs 7.27 crore, while the figure is Rs 18 crore if we look at winning MPs and MLAs with criminal cases and Rs 26.69 crore for MPs and MLAs with serious criminal cases.”

About party-wise criminal cases among elected MPs/ MLAs, the report shows that 29 (15%) out of 195 MPs/MLAs of Congress have declared criminal cases against themselves. Twenty-nine (20%) out of 142 MPs/MLAs elected on SAD ticket since 2004, four (10%) of 42 BJP MPs/MLAs, three (13%) of 24 AAP MPs/MLAs, both LIP MPs/MLAs and two (25%) of eight Independent MPs/MLAs have declared criminal cases.

Talking about winnability of candidates with tainted past, Parvinder Singh Kittna of Punjab Election Watch said: “The analysis shows that there are only 11% chances of winning an election for those with a clean record, which is 18% for those with criminal record.”