Seven have declared rape, murder and attempt to murder as the charges against them
Anil Anand. New Delhi
While electoral reforms are still to happen, there is no stopping a person with criminal antecedents from entering the electoral arena. The approaching by-elections to 31 assembly seats spread over seven states and one Lok Sabha seat has 29 candidates with serious criminal charges, as reflected in their affidavits filed with the nomination papers.
A study conducted by National Election Watch (NEW), an organisation working on electoral reforms, found that of these 29 candidates, seven have declared rape, murder and attempt to murder as the charges against them. Uttar Pradesh (19) tops the list of criminal candidates followed by Kerala (5).
Most of the mainline political parties have fielded these candidates with dubious antecedents. The Congress leads the table with seven such candidates among the 25 contesting polls on the party's ticket. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has five criminal elements among its 11 candidates, BJP five out of its 28 candidates and BSP four out of its 12 candidates.
The BSP candidates top the list in terms of heinous crimes. Four of its candidates face serious charges, followed by the SP's 2, BJP 1, CPI(M) 1, All India Forward Block 1 and independents two. All these candidates face charges such as murder, attempt to murder, theft etc.
Altogether, 317 candidates are in the fray in these by-elections. NEW's data is based on the study of 161 affidavits. UP apart there are by-elections in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Kerala, and West Bengal.
The saga of crorepatis entering the fray also continues unabated. Of the 161 analysed candidates, 23 are crorepatis. The maximum number of crorepatis, six, are from the Samajwadi Party followed by the Congress (5), BSP (4) and BJP (4).
Raj Babbar, cine-star-turned-politician and Congress nominee for the Ferozabad Lok Sabha by-election, is the richest candidate in the fray with assets worth Rs11.70 crore. Other rich candidates include BJP nominee from Padrauna Rajesh Pandey (Rs6.77 crore) and Samajwadi Party candidate from Ferozabad, Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav (Rs5.27 crore).