As many as 114 candidates contesting the Delhi Assembly polls have criminal cases against them, election watchdog — the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) — said on Friday, and noted that 19 out of 70 were ‘red alert’ constituencies, which had at least three tainted candidates each. The ADR in its report, which is an analysis of affidavits of 673 candidates contesting the February 7 polls, pointed out that the BJP has fielded the highest number of 27 candidates with criminal cases followed by AAP and Congress with 21 and 12 such candidates respectively.

It also observed that Tughlaqabad constituency has five candidates who have criminal cases against them. “114 out of 673 candidates (17 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. During the 2013 and 2008 Delhi Assembly elections, the percentage of candidates with criminal cases was 16 and 14 respectively,” Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member of ADR, said.

Out of the 114 candidates, 74 of them have declared serious criminal cases against them including murder, attempt to murder, assault, loss to exchequer and crimes against women. “Out of the 673 candidates, one candidate has a murder case against him and five candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder. 8 candidates have cases related to crimes against women. However, no candidate has a rape case against him,” he said.

Higher on the ‘red alert’ constituency list are Rajouri Garden and Tilak Nagar with 4 candidates in poll fray having criminal cases against them. The ‘red alert’ constituencies includes Najafgarh, Babarpur, Ghonda, Nangloi, Dwarka, Adarsh Nagar, Matia Mahal, Shahdara, Chhatarpur, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi, Mundka, Matiala, Okhla, Hari Nagar and RK Puram.

There are 70 political parties fielding candidates in these elections. In the previous elections in 2013 there were 77 political parties that contested and in 2008 there were 68 political parties that were in the fray. There are 66 (10%) female candidates out of 673 candidates contesting this year. In 2013 there were 71 (9%) female candidates out of 810 candidates in the fray and in 2008 there were 81 (9%) female candidates out of 875 candidates contesting the elections.