Around 15 % candidates in the fray for the first phase of Assembly polls in Gujarat are facing criminal cases, as per the analysis of their self-declared affidavits carried out by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Gujarat Election Watch.
There are total 977 candidates in the fray in 89 Assembly segments in the first phase where polling will be held on December 9. The Gujarat Election Watch and ADR analysed affidavits of 923 candidates out of which 137 have declared criminal cases against themselves.
A candidate from Dediapada, Mahesh Vasava, contesting under the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP), is facing a murder case while eight candidates are facing attempt to murder cases.
The analysis of party-wise candidates reveals that 31 candidates out of 86 from the Congress have criminal cases while 22 out of 89 of BJP candidates face criminal cases. “Our analysis shows that there are 21 out of 89 constituencies having three or more candidates with declared criminal cases,” ADR’s Professor Jagdeep Chhokkar told the media in Ahmedabad.
Another focus area of the analysis was the candidates’ financial records and background of assets and liabilities. As per the analysis of financial details, the average asset of each candidate is around ₹2.16 crore while the average asset of a BJP candidate is ₹10.70 crore, and that of Congress candidates is ₹8.46 crore and 60 BSP candidates have average assets of ₹19.16 lakh.
Among the top richest candidates includes Congress’ Indranil Rajyaguru, who has declared assets worth Rs 141 crore, BJP’s Saurabh Patel with assets worth Rs 123 crore, BJP’s Dhanjibhai Patel with assets worth Rs 113 crore, Congress candidate Jawahar Chavda with assets worth Rs 103 crore, BJP’s Pabubha Manek with assets worth Rs 88 crore and Congress Santokben Aarethiya with assets worth Rs 82 crore.
