Press Release                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     2^nd Nov 2017

Book on Maharashtra Municipal Election Watch Reports Released by Governor

Hon’ Governor of Maharashtra, Shri Vidyasagar Rao, today released a book on Election Watch Reports, documenting the information of all candidates and winners in the elections between 2015 and 2017. This book compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Maharashtra Election Watch (MEW), contains the financial, educational and criminal background information, based on self-sworn affidavits of around 40,000 candidates who stood for local body elections in the last two years.  The data covers candidates and winners of elections to Navi Mumbai, Vasai Virar, Kalyan Dombivali, Kolhapur, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Greater Mumbai, Akola, Amravati, Ulhasnagar, Nagpur, Solapur, Thane, Nasik, Malegaon, Bhiwandi Nizampur, Panvel and Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporations. The detailed information for each candidate is available on the websitemyneta.info as well as on www.adrindia.org. 

The Governor was the Chief Guest for the inaugural session of the two-day national conference celebrating ''25 years of 73rd & 74th constitutional amendments - Progress & future directions''. Mumbai University and Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune have organized the conference with the support of the State Election Commission.  Other speakers in the inaugural session included Smt. Pankaja Gopinath Munde, Hon.  Minister for Rural Development, Govt of Maharashtra, and the keynote address was given by Shri. T.R. Raghunandan, former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Govt of India and currently Consultant & Advisor, Decentralized Public Governance.  Shri J. S. Saharia, State Election Commissioner gave an overview of some of the landmark initiatives of the Commission. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to have achieved fully electronic submission of affidavits for all it’s municipal and other local body elections.

ADR’s book released on this occasion is based on work done by Association for Democratic Reforms and Maharashtra Election Watch. Overall, ADR and MEW have analyzed data pertaining to around 40,000 contesting candidates who contested in 22 Municipal Corporations, 184 Municipal Councils, 14 Nagar Panchayats, 25 Zilla Parishads & 8 gram Panchayats in last 3 years. This is the first such compilation of the local body elections of Maharashtra. 

ADR was established in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. In 1999, Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by them with Delhi High Court asking for [or requesting] the disclosure of the criminal, financial and educational background of the candidates contesting elections. Based on this, the Supreme Court in 2002, and subsequently in 2003, made it mandatory for all candidates contesting elections to disclose criminal, financial and educational background prior to the polls by filing an affidavit with the Election Commission.

The first election watch was conducted by ADR in 2002 for Gujarat Assembly Elections whereby detailed analysis of the backgrounds of candidates contesting elections was provided to the electorate in order to help the electorate make an informed choice during polls. Since then ADR has conducted Election Watches for almost all state and parliament elections in collaboration with the National Election Watch. It conducts multiple projects aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the political and electoral system of the country.

Contact details

Maharashtra Election Watch

National Election Watch/Association for Democratic Reforms