Uttarakhand polls: 19 pc candidates have criminal records

Political parties may campaign against corruption and criminality, but it's the selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls that tells the real story.

In all, 19 per cent of the candidates (53 from those analysed) in the fray in Uttarakhand campaigning for 70 assembly seats have criminal records.

Of the 53 tainted candidates, the maximum number, 16 are from the Congress. A report prepared by the Association of Democratic Reforms states that 16 out of 70 (23 per cent) Congress candidates, 14 out of 70 (20 per cent) Bahujan Samaj Party candidates, 13 out of 70 (19 per cent) Bharatiya Janata Party candidates and seven out of 44 (16 per cent) Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Panwar) candidates have criminal cases pending against them.  

In the 2007 assembly elections, 18 per cent candidates had declared criminal cases.

Out of these 53 candidates with pending criminal cases, 14 candidates are facing serious charges like attempt to murder, extortion, theft and bribery. 

A total of 88 candidates out of 278 analysed (32 per cent) are crorepatis as apposed to 11 per cent in the 2007 polls. Forty-three candidates out of 278 analysed declared liabilities of more than Rs 20 lakh.

The average assets of a Congress candidate are worth Rs 1.46 crore, and that of a BJP candidate are Rs 1.45 crore. For the BSP it is Rs 1.19 crore and Rs 38.08 lakh is the average value of assets of a candidate from the UKD-P.   

Of the 278 analysed in Uttarakhand 181 (65 per cent) are graduates or have higher educational qualifications.

Out of 788 candidates only 62 candidates (7.9 per cent) are women. From the 70 candidates in the fray from the Congress eight are women (11 per cent). The BJP is fielding only six women in the assembly polls and the BSP only three. Both these parties have a total of 70 candidates in the contest. From the 44 candidates of the UKD-P only three (seven per cent) are women.

Five-three MLAs who are re-contesting have been analysed. While the average assets of these MLAs was Rs 87.22 lakh in 2007, for the upcoming polls their value has been estimated at Rs 1.79 crore. The average asset growth of these MLAs is Rs 92.3 lakh, according to the data.