In spite of all the debate for clean politics, about 30 per cent of the candidates belonging to three main political parties contesting in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections have criminal charges against them.
This was revealed on Monday in an analysis of affidavits submitted by 683 candidates out of 2,583 candidates contesting in 230 constituencies of the State. The analysis was conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
“Affidavits were analysed only of candidates belonging to parties contesting in more than 200 constituencies. These include the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party,” ADR (National Election Watch) National Coordinator Anurag Mittal told reporters here.
Besides, three affidavits could not be analysed properly due to missing papers or improper scanning. These include affidavits of the Commerce and Industry Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya (BJP), Uday Prakash Mishra (Congress) and Vijay Singh Chouhan (BSP).
Of the 683 candidates analysed, 206 candidates have criminal cases pending against them. Of them, 120 are facing serious criminal cases, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crime against women.
Party wise, 40 per cent 91 in number of 228 candidates fielded by the Congress have declared criminal cases against them while the figure is 27 per cent 61 in number out of 229 candidates for the BJP and 24 per cent 54 in number out of 226 candidates for the BSP.
Compared to 2008 Assembly polls, the Congress, which had fielded 31 per cent candidates with criminal cases in 2008, has provided tickets to 40 per cent such candidates. For the BJP, the figure has increased from 22 per cent to 27 per cent while the BSP’s number has risen from 20 per cent to 24 per cent.
The report has described that 10 constituencies as red alert constituencies with at least three candidates from these political parties having criminal cases.
Congress’ candidate Brajendra Singh from Prthvipur and BSP’s nominee Sukhlal Prasad from Nagod have registered criminal cases pending against them. Five candidates have declared kidnapping charges against them while as many others are facing charges of offences against women. Eight candidates have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.