As many as 51 elected representatives -- three Members of Parliament and 48 Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) -- have been charged with crime against women as per their self-declared affidavits, an ADR analysis said on Wednesday.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a not-for-profit organisation, analysed election affidavits of 774 of the 776 current Members of Parliament and 4,078 of the 4,120 MLAs from across India.
Of these, 1,581 candidates were found to have declared criminal cases against them, with 51 involved in cases of crime against women. Four MLAs declared rape cases against them.
As many as 334 candidates facing charges of crime against women were given tickets by recognised political parties. Of these, 294 were given tickets for assembly elections, the analysis found.
A total of 40 such candidates were given tickets for Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha elections.
The MPs who have cases of crime against women registered against them include Rajkumar Dhoot (Rajya Sabha, Shiv Sena), Partha Pratim Ray (Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress) and Joice George (Lok Sabha, Independent).
Among the recognised parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party has the highest number (14) of MPs/MLAs who have against them cases of crime against women, followed by Shiv Sena with seven and Trinamool Congress with six.
In the last five years, the BJP gave tickets to 48 such candidates, again the highest among all recognised parties, followed by Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at 36, and Congress (27) for Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha and assembly elections in five years.
A total of 122 such candidates contested Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha/assembly elections as independents in five years.
Four MLAs have declared rape cases against them -- Gonuguntla Suryanarayana (Telugu Desam Party, Andhra Pradesh), Subal Sahu (Congress, Odisha), Jethabhai G. Ahir (BJP, Gujarat), and Gulab Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bihar).
In five years, recognised parties gave tickets to 29 candidates who declared rape cases against them.
The election watch body demanded that candidates with criminal background be barred from contesting elections. Also, it said, cases against MPs and MLAs should be fast- tracked and decided in time-bound manner.
