As the campaigning for the upcoming Assembly polls in Delhi reaches its final stages, the Delhi Election Watch jointly with the Association of Democratic Reforms have studied the different aspects of the self-sworn affidavits of all the 673 candidates who will be contesting the 7 February polls, and released statistics of candidates with criminal charges against them.
Out of all the 70 political parties which are fielding candidates in the scheduled polls, many have reported criminal charges against themselves. For instance, 114 of the 673 candidates have declared charges and cases registered on criminal grounds against themselves which estimate to about 17%. There has been a sharp increase in the percentage of candidates with criminal cases as compared to the 2008 and 2013 elections when the figure was 14% and 16% respectively.
Of these 74 candidates have been registered with serious criminal charges such as electoral offence, assault, murder, kidnap, rape and so on, bringing the percentage value to 11%.
In terms of political parties, 17 of the 69 BJP candidates have criminal charges against them making the saffron party the highest in the list. AAP follows next with 21 candidates booked under criminal offence followed by INC, BSP and SAD with 21 candidates, 12 and one respectively. Also 9 out of 195 independent candidates have been registered for criminal cases.
The statistics also point towards various red-alert constituencies which have three or more candidates with criminal charges taking part in the polls. The Tughlakabad constituency has been marked as the top-most red-alert constituency with five candidates having being booked for illicit cases.
