As many as 34 per cent of the 1463 candidates contesting in the second phase of the Assembly elections in Bihar have criminal cases pending against them, and in the case of 27 per cent of them, the cases pertain to serious crimes.
The Bihar Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 1463 candidates contesting in the second phase of the elections, finding that 502 or 34 per cent of the candidates have criminal cases pending against them, and 389 or 27 per cent have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Amongst the major parties, 36 out of 56 candidates or 64 per cent analysed from the RJD, 29 out of 46 candidates or 63 per cent from the BJP, 14 out of 24 candidates or 58 per cent from the Congress, 28 out of 52 candidates or 54 per cent from the LJP, 16 out of 33 candidates or 49 per cent from the BSP and 20 out of 43 candidates or 47 per cent from the JD(U) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
With regard to serious criminal cases, 28 out of 56 candidates or 50 per cent analysed from the RJD, 24 out of 52 candidates or 46 per cent from the LJP, 20 out of 46 candidates or 44 per cent from the BJP, 14 out of 33 candidates or 42 per cent from the BSP, 10 out of 24 candidates or 42 per cent from the Congress and 15 out of 43 candidates or 35 per cent from the JD(U) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
As many as 49 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women, and four of them have declared cases related to rape. A total of 32 candidates have murder cases and 143 candidates have cases of attempt to murder pending against them.
A total of 84 out of 94 constituencies are 'red alert' constituencies or seats where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Out of the 1463 candidates, 495 or 34 per cent are crorepatis. The average of assets per candidate contesting in phase two of the Bihar polls is Rs 1.72 crore.
The top three candidates in terms of highest declared assets are Sanjeev Singh of the Congress, with total assets worth Rs 56 crore, Deo Kumar Chaurasia, whose assets total Rs 49 crore and Anunay Sinha of the Congress with assets worth Rs 46 crore.
Three candidates have declared zero assets – Suresh Baitha and Arjun Paswan, who are Independents, and Anand Kumar of the Rashtriya Jan Kalyan Party Secular.