After the first phase of assembly election in Gujarat, the political parties are rallying hard for the public support in the next phase. According to the official reckoning, Gujarat recorded around 68 percent voter turnout in the first phase. With help from ADR’s data, Impact News is shedding light on the backgrounds of candidates who are going to contest in the second phase.
The Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 822 out of 851 candidates, who are contesting in the second phase of Gujarat Assembly Elections to be held on 14th December 2017. There are 29 candidates who have not been analysed as the affidavits of these candidates were either badly scanned or the complete affidavits were not available on the ECI website.
Criminal Background of Candidates:
- Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 822 candidates analyzed, 101 (12%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
- Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 64 (8%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.
- Candidates with cases related to murder: 2 candidates have declared cases related to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302).
- Candidates with cases related to Attempt to Murder: 7 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (Indian Penal Code Section-307).
- Candidates with cases related to Crimes against Women: 2 candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376) and 2 candidates have declared case related to Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section-354).
- Candidates with cases related to Kidnapping: 3 candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person (IPC Section-365).
- Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 22(26%) out of 86 candidates from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), 25 (28%) out of 88 candidates from Indian National Congress(INC), 6 (8%) out of 74 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP), 4 (15%) out of 27 candidates from NCP, 2 (29%) out of 7 candidates from AAP, and 23 (7%) out of 344 Independent candidates analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
- Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 13(15%) out of 86 candidates from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), 18 (21%) out of 88 candidates from Indian National Congress(INC), 2 (3%) out of 74 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 3 (11%) out of 27 candidates from NCP, 1 (14%) out of 7 candidates from AAP, and 14 (4%) out of 344 Independent candidates analysed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Criteria for Serious Criminal Cases
- Offence for which maximum punishment is 5 years or more
- If an offence is non-bailable
- If it is an electoral offence (for eg. IPC 171E or bribery)
- Offence related to loss to exchequer
- Offences that are assault, murder, kidnap, rape-related
- Offences that are mentioned in Representation of the People Act (Section 8)
- Offences under Prevention of Corruption Act 8. Crimes against women
Source: The Gujarat Election Watch & Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)
