Sixteen percent of the candidates contesting in Phase 1 of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (252 of 1,618) have criminal cases against them, revealed a report by the National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,618 of the 1,625 candidates for Phase 1.

The Lok Sabha elections 2024 will kick off in 102 Parliamentary constituencies in 21 states and Union territories (UTs) on April 19.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases in the country, scheduled for April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The counting of votes will take place on 4 June.

According to the ADR report, out of the 252 (16%) candidates with criminal cases, 161 (10%) have declared serious criminal cases against them, seven have cases related to murder, 18 have declared cases related to crimes against women, including rape, and 35 candidates have said they have cases related to hate speech against them.

It has revealed that 28 out of 77 (36%) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates and 19 out of 56 (34%) Congress candidates have admitted that they have criminal cases filed against them. Four out of four (100%) candidates of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have cases against them. For the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Samajwadi Party (SP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the percentages are 59, 43, 40, and 13, respectively.

Out of 102 constituencies, a red alert has been declared in 42 (41%) constituencies. Such an alert is sounded in a constituency if three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The ADR report further showed that 450 out of the 1,618 candidates (28%) analysed have assets worth ₹1 crore or more. The BJP has fielded 69 (90%) crorepati candidates while the Congress has fielded 49 crorepati candidates (88%) in the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, 10 contenders in the first phase have declared zero assets in their affidavits, while the average asset per candidate contesting is ₹4.51 crore.

The average asset per candidate for 77 BJP candidates is ₹22.37 crore while the 56 INC candidates have average assets of ₹27.79 crore, 22 DMK candidates have ₹31.22 crore, 4 RJD candidates have average assets worth ₹8.93 crore, 7 SP candidates have average assets worth ₹6.67 crore, and 5 AITC candidates have average assets of ₹3.72 crore.

The top three candidates with the highest assets are Congress’ Nakul Nath ( ₹716+ crore) from Madhya Pradesh, the AIADMK’s Ashok Kumar ( ₹662+ crore) and the BJP’s Dhevanathan Yadav T ( ₹304+ crore) from Tamil Nadu.

Three candidates who have declared the lowest assets are from the Congress.

“The directions of the Supreme Court have not affected the political parties in selection of candidates in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 1 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 16% candidates with criminal cases,” said the ADR report.