Money, muscle power on rise: Candidates' data shows

The analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms showed that at least 1,070 or 13% candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls have serious criminal charges while 2,297 or 29% hold assets worth more than Rs one crore.

It also showed that the average assets of 335 re-contesting MPs rose by 41% during the past five years from Rs Rs 16.79 crore in 2014 to Rs 23.65 crore in 2019.

However, one of the silver lining is that there is an increase of women candidates, though marginal, this time clocking 716 or 9% from the fairer sex filing the nominations as against 640 or 8% in 2014 and 556 or 7% in 2009.

The ADR analysis is based on the study of self-sworn affidavits of 7,928 out of 8,049 candidates who are contesting in the ongoing Lok Sabha Sabha 2019 elections from Phase 1 to 7.

Out of the 1,070 candidates with serious criminal charges, the highest number of 124 (29%) belong to BJP followed by 107 (26%) of Congress, 61 (16%) of BSP, 24 (35%) of CPI(M) and 292 (9%) independents. In 2014 elections, this number was 908 (11%) out of 8,205 candidates and 608 (8%) in 2009 polls.

Of this, 56 candidates have declared convicted cases against themselves while 55 have murder charges against them. Candidates with cases of crimes against women are 126 while 95 candidates have declared cases related to hate speech.

There are 265 (49%) constituencies that have three or more candidates with declared criminal cases, which is an increase from 245 in 2014 and 196 in 2009, the analysis showed.

On the wealth front too, there was an increase. While at least 2,297 candidates are crorepatis this time, it was 2,217 (27%) in 2014 and 1,249 in 2019.

BJP has the highest number of 361 (83%) crorepati candidates followed by Congress (348), BSP (127), CPI(M) 25, NCP (20) and 506 independents.

When it comes to educational qualifications, 3,477 (44%) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 5 and Class 12 while 3,808 (48%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduation and above.

Among the candidates, 253 have declared themselves to be just literate and 163 candidates are illiterates.

Sixty-two per cent or 4,941 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 2,932 (37%) candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years. While 18 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old, 35 candidates have not disclosed their age details and two candidates declared their age below 25 years.