Preliminary Analysis of Candidates Announced by INC and BJP

INDIA: Preliminary Analysis of Candidates Announced by INC and BJP for Lok Sabha 2014

National Election Watch

Association of Democratic Reforms

March 13, 2014

Preliminary Analysis of Candidates Announced by INC and BJP for Lok Sabha 2014

The major parties, Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced their candidates for Lok Sabha, 2014 recently. A total of 203 candidates were announced by INC and BJP for Lok Sabha till 8th March, 2014. Out of these, Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch have analysed the background details of 188 candidates whose affidavits were available from assembly or Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha elections in the past. The latest information regarding assets as well as criminal charges if any, would be available once the candidates file their affidavits for 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.

Recommendations:
The current analysis of the candidates fielded by the major parties shows that political parties continue to give tickets to candidates with serious criminal cases. The Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch recommend that
a) Political parties should refrain from giving tickets to candidates with serious criminal cases.

b) Political parties should take a stand against misuse of money power, bribing of voters and distribution of freebies.

c) Political parties should move towards transparency and disclose the criteria for selection of candidates during elections.

Analysis of Declared Criminal Cases
Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 188 candidates analysed, 56 candidates (30\%) had declared criminal cases against themselves in their previous election affidavit. BJP has 23 out of 62 candidates (37\%) with criminal cases and INC has 33 out of 126 (25\%) candidates with criminal cases.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 24 candidates (13\%) out of 188 analysed had declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their previous election affidavits. 14 out of 62 (23\%) candidates of BJP and 10 out of 126 (8\%) candidates of INC have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Cases of Murder and related: 2 candidates had declared cases of murder in their previous election affidavits. Adhir Ranjan Choudhary (Sitting MP) of INC from Baharampur Constituency and Sarbananda Sonowal of BJP from Lakhimpur constituency had declared a case of murder against themselves.(Sitting MP) of INC from Baharampur Constituency and Sarbananda Sonowal of BJP from Lakhimpur constituency had declared a case of murder against themselves.

Candidates with Cases of Attempt to Murder: 3 candidates announced by INC have declared charges of attempt to murder. Abdul Mannan Hossain (Sitting MP) from Murshidabad constituency, Ratna Singh (Sitting MP) from Pratapgarh constituency and Vinay Kumar Pandey (Sitting MP) from Shrawasti constituency have declared a case of attempt to murder against himself.

Candidates with cases of Kidnapping and related: Gopinath Munde (Sitting MP) of BJP from Beed Constituency and Abdul Mannan Hossain (Sitting MP) of INC from Murshidabad Constituency have declared cases of kidnapping.

Candidates with cases related to electoral violations: 4 candidates announced by the major parties have declared cases related to electoral violations. Nana Patole of BJP from Bhandara – Gondiya Constituency and Ch. Bijendra Singh of INC from Aligarh Constituency have declared cases related to Illegal payments in connection with an election (IPC Section-171H). Ramesh V. Katti of BJP from Chikkodi constituency and Furkan Ansari of INC from Godda
Constituency have declared cases related to undue influence or personation at an election (IPC Section-171F)
Analysis of Declared Financial Details
Average Assets of Candidates: The average assets of 188 candidates analysed is Rs. 5.68 crores.

Party-wise average assets: The average assets of 126 INC candidates is Rs. 6.91 crores and the average assets of 62 BJP candidates is Rs. 3.18 crores.

No. of crorepati candidates: Out of 188 candidates, 114 candidates (62\%) have declared total assets (Self assets +Others Assets) of more than Rs. 1 crore.

Party-wise crorepati candidates: 86 out of 126 candidates (68\%) in INC and 30 out of 62 (48\%) candidates in BJP have declared total assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

High Asset Candidates: Naveen Jindal (Sitting MP) of INC from Kurukshetra Constituency has declared the highest assets among the 186 candidates analysed, worth Rs. 131.07 crores followed by Ratna Singh (Sitting MP) of INC from Pratapgarh Constituency with assets worth Rs. 67.82 crores and Kazim Ali Khan (Naved Miyan) of INC from Rampur constituency with assets worth Rs. 56.89 crores. Among the candidates announced by BJP, Shivkumari C. Udasi from Haveri Constituency has the highest assets worth, Rs. 32.33 crores.

Analysis of Criminal and Financial Details of Re-contesting MPs
Re-contesting MPs: Out of the 188 candidates analysed, 101 candidates are sitting Lok Sabha MPs.

Re-contesting MPs with Criminal Cases: Out of 101 re-contesting Lok Sabha MPs, 30 (30\%) had declared criminal cases against themselves in their previous election affidavit.

Re-contesting MPs with Serious Criminal Cases: Out of 101 re-contesting Lok Sabha MPs, 12 (12\%) had declared serious criminal cases against themselves like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping etc.

Average Assets of Re-contesting MPs: The average assets of 101 re-contesting MPs is Rs. 7.22 crores.

No. of crorepati Re-contesting MPs: Out of 101 re-contesting MPs, 68 (67\%) had declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore in their previous election affidavits.

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Data in this Kit is presented in good faith, with an intention to inform voters. Candidate's affidavit with nomination papers is the source of this analysis. For more details visit www.adrindia.org, www.myneta.info

ENDS

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