Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections: Increase in Criminality and Assets Since 2013

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) along with the Madhya Pradesh Election Watch has analysed 2,716 out of 2,899 election affidavits filed by contesting candidates in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh polls. Due to either incomplete affidavits or bad quality scans, the remaining affidavits could not be analysed. A significant number of the contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, some of the offences that they have been accused of include murder, kidnapping and violence against women. The report also noticed that the percentage of candidates with declared assets above Rs. 1 crore had increased from 19 per cent in 2013 to 24 per cent at present.

Criminality

As per ADR’s methodology they have classified criminal cases into two categories; criminal cases and serious criminal cases. For a case to fall within the category of ‘serious criminal case’ the case must pertain to;

• Offences which attract a maximum punishment of five years or more.
• Non-bailable offences.
• Electoral offences other than those mentioned in the Representation of the People Act.
• Offences related to causing a loss to the exchequer.
• Offences consisting of and related to assault, murder, kidnap and rape.
• Offences mentioned in the Representation of the People Act.
• Offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

As per ADR’s analysis, the number of candidates with criminal cases has risen from the 2013 election. In 2013, 407 out of 2494 candidates had declared criminal cases against them, which works out to around 16 per cent. At present, 464 out of 2716 candidates have declared criminal cases against them, which is around 17 per cent. In 2013, 263 candidates had declared serious criminal cases, whereas at present, the number stands at 295. In percentage terms, there is no increase in proportion as for both elections it remains at 11 per cent of the candidates.

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According to ADR’s findings, 30 per cent of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) contesting candidates have criminal cases against them, while 17 per cent have serious criminal cases against them. The Congress has 48 per cent of its candidates with criminal cases and 25 per cent with serious criminal cases. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has 21 per cent of its candidates with criminal cases and 15 per cent with serious criminal cases. The Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) has 17 per cent of its candidates with criminal cases against them and 10 per cent with serious criminal cases.

Assets

Out of the analysed affidavits, 7 per cent had assets worth Rs. 5 crore and above, among them Sanjay Satyendra Pathak of the BJP had the highest declared assets which stands above Rs. 226 crore. While 8 per cent of the candidates had assets in the range of Rs. 2 to 5 crore, 20 per cent had assets worth Rs. 50 lakh to 2 crore and 27 per cent were in the range of Rs. 10 lakh to 50 lakh. The largest chunk of candidates, 38 per cent, had assets below Rs. 10 lakh.

In terms of percentages, 81 per cent of the BJP’s candidates have assets above Rs. 1 crore, while 78 per cent for the Congress, 24 per cent for the BSP, 18 per cent for the AAP and 35 per cent of the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) candidates have assets above Rs. 1 crore.

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There are seven candidates who have declared zero assets. Of these, two are independent candidates, and two are from the BSP. The remaining three are from the Indian Union Muslim League, the Dalit Vikas Party (Bharat) and the All India Hindustan Congress Party.

The report has observed that 146 candidates with assets above Rs. 1 crore have not declared their income tax details. It should also be noted that there may be some candidates who are exempted from declaring income tax. Of the top three candidates with high assets who have not declared their income tax returns, one is from the BJP, one from the Congress and one from the Bhartiya Gramin Samaj Party. Ramlal Rautel of the BJP has assets above Rs. 14 crore. Ravi Sharma of the Bhartiya Gramin Samaj Party and Shailendra Patel of the Congress have assets above Rs. 13 crore.