New Delhi: As many as 10% of candidates out of 953 in the second phase of the Chattisgarh Assembly Elections have criminal cases against them with 56 facing serious offences of voluntarily causing hurt, cheating and criminal intimidation, a report by an election watchdog revealed. The report said that 253 candidates are 'crorepatis' with Congress leader TS Singh Deo topping the list with assets of more than Rs 447 crore.
According to a report released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on late Friday evening, out of 953 candidates analysed, 100 (10 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Among the major parties, 13 (19 per cent) candidates from the Congress, 12 from the BJP, 11 from the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 12 (27 per cent) from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits, it said.
In the ruling Congress, seven (10 per cent) of its 70 candidates have serious criminal cases against their names, while the figure is four (6 per cent) out of 70 for the opposition BJP, four out of 62 for the JCC (J) and six of 44, or 14 per cent, for AAP. In terms of the assets, out of a total of 70 candidates from Congress 60 (80%) are 'crorepatis', 57 (81%) out of 70 candidates from Bharatiya Janata Party, 26 (42%) out of 62 candidates analysed from Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 19 (43%) out of 44 candidates analysed from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have declared assets of more than Rs 1 crore, the report said.
The three candidates who topped the list with highest number of assets as per the report are Deputy CM of Chattisgarh TS Singh Deo with assets of more than Rs 447 crore, followed by Ramesh Singh (Rs 73 crore plus) and Amitesh Shukla (Rs 48 crore plus). All three of them are from the Congress. In terms of Gender details, out of a total of 953 candidates only 130 (14%) candidates are women with 39 (11%) independent out of 354, 15 (21%) from Congress out of a total of 70 candidates, 12 (17%) out of a total of 70 from BJP and others.
As per the report, 499 (52%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard, while 405 (42%) candidates have claimed they have completed graduation and above. The report said 21 are diploma holders, 19 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and six have claimed to be illiterate.
Three candidates have not given their educational qualifications. A total of 958 candidates will contest the second phase of the Chhattisgarh elections, but the report has not analysed five candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the Election Commission of India's website.
The elections for 20 out of the total 90 Assembly seats in the state were held on November 7, while the remaining 70 constituencies will go to polls in the second phase on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3.
