West Bengal Assembly Elections | 26% of candidates for Bengal phase 7 poll have criminal cases

21% have serious criminal cases, says report

Almost 26% of the candidates in the fray for the seventh phase of the West Bengal Assembly election have declared criminal cases against themselves, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report on Monday.

In its analysis of the election affidavits of all 284 candidates for the 36 constituencies in the seventh phase on April 26, the association found that 73 of the contenders had declared criminal cases and 60, or 21%, of the total candidates had serious criminal cases.

Among the major political parties in the fray, 69% of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidates analysed, 53% of the Trinamool Congress candidates, 53% of the BJP candidates and 47% of the Congress candidates had declared criminal cases. A total of 18 candidates had declared crimes against women, three declared murder cases and 14 declared attempt to murder cases pending against themselves, it said.

Twenty-three per cent of the candidates had declared assets worth over ₹1 crore and the average assets of the candidates was ₹1.22 crore, it said.

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