A report by Punjab Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on candidates contesting assembly polls in Punjab shows that 25 percent of candidates have criminal cases against them, and 57 out of 117 constituencies have 3 or more candidates with criminal records.

The report based on an analysis of self-sworn affidavits of 1276 candidates out of 1304 who are contesting assembly polls in Punjab was released by the Punjab Election Watch and the ADR on Friday.

Jaskirat Singh, an ADR trustee, and Parvinder Singh Kittna and Harpreet Singh from Punjab Election Watch released the report here.

Out of the 1,276 candidates analysed, 228 are from national parties, 256 from state parties, 345 from registered unrecognised parties, and 447 candidates are contesting independently.

Among the major parties, 65 (68 per cent) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 58 (50 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 27 (38 per cent) out of 71 candidates analysed from the BJP, four (29 per cent) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), three (15 per cent) out of 20 candidates analysed from the BSP, 16 (14 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from the Congress and three (11 per cent) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress have declared criminal cases against them.

Again, among the major parties, 60 (63 per cent) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 27 (23 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 15 (21 per cent) out of 71 candidates analysed from the BJP, three (21 per cent) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), three (15 per cent) out of 20 candidates analysed from the BSP, nine (8 per cent) out of 117 candidates analysed from the Congress and two (7 per cent) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress have declared serious criminal cases against them.

Fifteen candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Of these, two candidates have declared cases related to rape, four to murder and 33 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder against them.

As many as 57 (49 per cent) of the 117 constituencies in the state are red-alert constituencies. Red-alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against them.

In the case of 28 candidates, their affidavits were either badly scanned, or their complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website forcing the Punjab Election Watch and ADR to leave them from their analysis.