Political parties’ love for fielding candidates with criminal antecedents continues in Bihar assembly election 2020, with as many as 319 out of the 1,066 contestants in fray in the first phase of polls having a criminal record, according to a data released by the state’s chief electoral officer.

71 constituencies situated in 16 districts are going to polls on October 28, the first phase of the three-phase elections for the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly.

A candidate in an election is required to file an affidavit called Form 26 that furnishes information on his/her assets, liabilities, educational qualifications, criminal antecedents (convictions and all pending cases) and public dues, if any.

The objective behind introducing Form 26 was to help voters make an informed decision after noting the criminal activities of a candidate. The move was aimed at transparency to prevent people with questionable backgrounds from getting elected to an assembly or Parliament.

Gaya district, which has 10 assembly constituencies, has the highest number of 49 candidates with criminal antecedents. It is followed by Bhojpur, where 39 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, Rohtas has 37 and Buxar has 23 such candidates.

The data for the second and third phases are yet to be released. In the second phase, 94 constituencies are going to polls on November 3 and 78 seats will be contested in the third phase on November 7.

A recent analysis by the association for democratic reforms (ADR) and Bihar election watch has revealed that the outgoing assembly (2015-2020) had 136 (57%) MLAs with pending criminal cases, while 94 (39%) of MLAs had declared serious criminal cases pending against them.

The ADR report, which analysed 240 sitting MLAs as three seats are vacant, said that 11 MLAs had declared cases related to murder, 30 MLAs had declared cases related to attempt to murder, 5 MLAs had declared cases related to crimes against women including case related to rape against one MLA. This analysis was done on the basis of affidavits submitted by the candidates prior to the 2015 assembly elections and the bypolls conducted thereafter.

45 or 56% of 80 RJD MLAs had criminal cases, while 34 or 49% of 69 JD(U) MLAs had criminal cases against them. JD (U)’s alliance partner in NDA, the BJP, was not far behind with as many as 34 or 63% of its 54 MLAs having pending criminal cases, followed by 14 or 56% of 25 Congress MLAs.

Among other parties, two out of two LJP MLAs and all three CPI(ML)(L) MLAs had criminal cases registered against them. Independents were not to be left behind with four out of five Independent MLAs having declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Similarly, 33 or 41% of 80 RJD MLAs had serious criminal cases pending against them; 26 or 38% of 69 JD(U) MLAs had serious criminal cases against them, followed by 19 or 35% of 54 BJP MLAs, 10 or 40% of 25 Congress MLAs, one out of 2 LJP MLAs, 2 out of 3 CPI(ML) MLAs and three out of five Independent MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.