Abdul hafiz lakhani discovers some startling information based on the analysis of candidates fielded by the various political parties in the Gujarat Assembly elections, carried out by the Gujarat Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Of the 923 candidates who contested elections in the first phase, 137 have declared criminal cases against them. Of this 8% (78 candidates) have serious criminal cases, including charges that of murder, attempt to murder, etc. registered against them. Fifteen per cent of the candidates contesting from constituencies that went to polls in the first phase on December 9 have criminal cases against them.
The only candidate with a charge of murder registered against him is Mahesh Chotubhai Vasava from Dediapada. He belongs to the Bharatiya Tribal Party. Two candidates have rape cases filed against them. The analysis was carried out by the Gujarat Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Of the total 977 candidates, the affidavits of only 923 candidates were analysed as the rest were badly scanned or incomplete. It was also found that 24% (21) of the total 89 constituencies that went to polls in the first phase on December 9 fall in the red alert category.
Red alert is a tag given to a constituency that has three or more candidates with declared criminal cases against them. Of this, seven constituencies are such in which the candidates put up by the BJP and the Congress have criminal cases against them. It should be noted that in most seats in Gujarat, the fight is between BJP and Congress. Speaking on the red alert categories, Jagdeep Chhokar of ADR said that it showed the tragedy of the election process where sometimes people had to pick between two bad candidates.
“When we request the political parties not to give tickets to those with criminal backgrounds, they argue that people can always choose not to vote for them,” said Chhokar. He said that in red alert constituencies, the tragedy is that a substantial number of contesting candidates including those from the leading political parties have a criminal background.
“We all know that in a seat even if there are 12 candidates, the potential for winning is of just 2 to 3 candidates. Now when all such potential candidates have criminal background, it is obvious who will get elected,” said Chhokar. Congress leads the pack in both absolute numbers and percentage when it comes to candidates with criminal cases against them. It also leads in terms of candidates with serious criminal cases against them.
Thirty-one of the 86 candidates (36%) from Congress have criminal cases against them of which 20 have serious criminal charges against them. For BJP, 22 of its 89 candidates (25%) have criminal charges against them, of which 10 have serious criminal charges. The AAP, which claims to give tickets only to clean candidates, have two candidates with criminal cases filed against them.
Perhaps the most shocking data pertains to literacy levels of candidates. Only 27% candidates have studied above standard 12 while 17 are illiterate. In other words, 673 out of 923 candidates have studied only up to standard 12. Congress candidates in fray are more educated, and younger, than the BJP’s. While the saffron party has 32 candidates (36%) that are graduates, Congress has 38 (44%). If we look at the age factor, BJP has fielded older candidates than Congress. BJP has 42 candidates above 55 years of age while Congress has 28.