Source: 
The Pioneer
Author: 
Date: 
12.02.2022
City: 
New Delhi

Among the 117 constituencies in Punjab, 57 (49%) are red alert constituencies where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Out of the 1276 candidates in fray,  315 (25 per cent)  candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves and 218 have declared serious criminal cases against them. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is top in the list of giving tickets to candidates having criminal cases, followed by Aam Admi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and SAD (Sanyukt).  In 2017, out of the 1,145 candidates analysed, 100 (9 percent) had declared criminal cases and 77 ( 7 per cent) had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,276 candidates out of the 1,304 who are contesting the Punjab Assembly elections and found that as many as 25 per cent candidates have criminal cases and 57 constituencies have three or more candidates with criminal cases in the fray.

Among the major parties, 60 (63 per cent) out of 96 candidates analysed from the SAD have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. As many as 27 (23 per cent) of the 117 candidates analysed from the AAP, 15 (21 per cent) of the 71 candidates analysed from the BJP, 3 (21 per cent) of the 14 candidates analysed from SAD (Sanyukt), 3 (15%) of the 20 candidates analysed from the BSP, nine (8%) of the 117 candidates analysed from the INC and two (7%) of the 27 candidates analysed from the Punjab Lok Congress party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

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

When it comes to assets, 521 (41%) of the 1,276 candidates are crorepatis, up from 37% or 428 of the 1,145 candidates who contested the 2017 polls.

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