258 candidates with criminal history in 3rd phase

A total of 258 candidates with criminal history are contesting in the third phase on Thursday (April 30) of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, as per the survey of the National Election Watch (NEW).

NEW, a congregation of as many as 1200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), across the country has found that out of the 1,492 affidavits of the total 1,567 candidates in the fray, 258 candidates have some kind of criminal background.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

According to the analysis, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) topped the list of candidates with criminal records with 29 nominees followed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with 28 candidates.

Further, Congress comes third with 26 candidates and Samajwadi Party (SP) on the fourth spot with 15. The analysis also outlines state wise figure where Gujarat tops the list with 69 candidates followed by Bihar with 54 and Uttar Pradesh with 36 candidates.

‘Out of the total 258 candidates having criminal record, 117 are charged with heinous crimes. Of these, Samajwadi Party tops with the maximum (13) candidates,’ said NEW.

Not only this phase sees more candidates with criminal past but it also numbers a total of 223 millionaires in the poll fray. Here, Congress is on the top with 58 followed by BJP-42, BSP-21 and SP-13.

NEW further puts details that at least 59.6 percent candidates have not furnished their PAN card details and about 40 percent of candidates are graduates, post graduates or with doctorates.

NEW with its highly uplifting initiatives has been working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India. During the first and second phase of poll it too had published the list of candidates with criminal past as 222 and 288 respectively. Its study has also revealed that most of the major political parties don’t hesitate to field such candidates.