Election FAQ: Candidates with criminal backgrounds

In light of the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Polls 2019, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) has consolidated a report on the candidates who would feature in the upcoming phase of the election. The report consists of details on the candidates’ criminal background, assets and educational qualifications.

The ADR report, which has been created in association with The National Election Watch has concluded that 189 of the 967 (20 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against them, of which 146 have serious criminal cases against them. 26 out of 54 candidates from BJP ND 20 out of 46 candidates from INC have criminal cases against them.

34 out of the 49 constituencies have been declared as ‘Red Alert Constituencies’. These are constituencies where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against them.

A total of 14 cases have been filed against Dilip Kumar Ghosh of the BJP. He is standing in Medinipore constituency of West Bengal.

Bharati Ghosh, BJP candidate from the Ghatal constituency in West Bengal has accumulated a total of 11 criminal cases against her. She has been accused of 24 serious IPC violations. Charges include extortion, criminal intimidation and forgery. She has been accused of Criminal breach of trust by a public servant as a former IPS officer.

General Secretary of the Indian National Congress party's All India Congress Committee and Rajya Sabha MP, Digvijaya Singh contesting from Bhopal opposite to Pragya Singh Thakur has eight criminal cases against him. He has been charged with a total of 22 crimes, 8 of which are serious.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP candidate from Bhopal has a total of seven charges against her, five of which are serious. She has been charged with alleged murder, Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and promoting prejudice. She is also a suspect in the 2008 Malegaon terror attack.

Amit Jani from the Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena has a total of nine cases against him which include total charges, 18 of which are serious.

Dhirendra Pratap Singh of the Indian National Congress standing from the Shrawati constituency of Uttar Pradesh has a total of 8 cases against him. He has been charged with 28 violations of the IPC.

Leader of the Communist Party of India Liberation in Siwan District of Bihar, Amarnath Yadav contesting from Siwan has a total of 12 cases against him. He has two charges for attempt to murder. He has a total of 54 charges against him which include charges for kidnapping and attempts to influence elections.

Sandeep Singh, an independent contesting from the Kurukshetra constituency has a total of eight cases against him and a total of 44 charges, eight of which are serious. These include charges for criminal intimidation.

Balwant Kataria, another independent candidate contesting from the Faridabad constituency has charges pending against him. He has been charged with 28 IPC violations including criminal intimidation.

A total of 25 candidates have been accused of ‘attempt to murder’. Bihar (43) and Uttar Pradesh (36) have the highest number of candidates with criminal cases against them. A total of 21 candidates have been alleged to hate committed crimes against women while 11 of them have been charged with practising and propagating hate speech.