Candidates with pending crimes: A comparative analysis of the 2014 and 2019 elections

Updated: Monday, May 13, 2019, 18:07 [IST]

New Delhi, May 13: Crime and politics have had a very close nexus worldwide. In India they are so intertwined that a clean politician sounds like an oxymoron. A report released by a nonprofitable organisation that works on electoral and political reform shows the criminal records of the candidates who are contesting in the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Candidates with pending crimes: A comparative analysis of the 2014 and 2019 elections — Representational Image

Lok sabha Elections 2019, Analysis of Criminal Background:

The National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits candidates, who are contesting in the Lok Sabha election 2019. These candidates are from national parties, state parties, registered unrecognized parties and candidates who are contesting independently.

The list includes the following crimes:

Candidates with Criminal Cases
Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases
Candidates with Declared Convicted Cases
Candidates with cases related to Murder
Candidates with cases related to Attempt to Murder
Candidates with cases related to Kidnapping
Candidates with cases related to Crime Against Women
Candidates with cases related to Hate Speech

Party wise candidates with criminal cases 2019 phase 1 to phase 6:

Name of the political parties	Total number of candidates contested
--	P-1	P-2	P-3	P-4	P-5	P-6
BJP	83	51	97	57	48	54
INC	83	53	90	57	45	46

Name of the political parties	No. of candidates with criminal cases
--	P-1	P-2	P-3	P-4	P-5	P-6
BJP	30(36%)	16(31%)	38(39%)	25(44%)	22(46%)	26(48%)
INC	35(42%)	23(43%)	40(44%)	18(32%)	14(31%)	20(44%)

Name of the political parties	No. of candidates with serious criminal cases
--	P-1	P-2	P-3	P-4	P-5	P-6
BJP	16(19%)	10(20%)	26(27%)	20(35%)	19(40%)	18(35%)
INC	22(27%)	17(32%)	24(27%)	9(16%)	13(29%)	12(26%)

There are also Red alert constituencies are those constituencies where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Now a glance on 2014 Lok Sabha Polls:

In 2014, Association for Democratic Reforms' (ADR), analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 542 of 543 winners in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and found that BJP led the chart with as many as 98 winning candidates (35%) out of total 282, who back then were facing criminal charges. While as, eight out of total 44 candidates of Congress were facing criminal charges.

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases 2014:

Name of the political parties	BJP	INC
No. of candidates with criminal cases	92 (35%) out of 267	7 (16%) out of 45
No. of candidates with serious criminal cases	58 (22%) out of 267	2 (4%) out of 45