The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Friday said 25% of the 318 candidates in the fray for the fifth phase of the West Bengal Assembly election had declared criminal cases against themselves.
The ADR analysed the election affidavits of all but one of the 319 phase-V candidates, as one candidate’s complete affidavit was not available on the Election Commission’s portal. While 79 candidates had declared criminal cases, 64 of them could be categorised as serious cases, it said.
Sixty-two per cent of the BJP candidates analysed and 43% of the All-India Trinamool Congress had declared criminal cases. In all, 13 candidates had declared cases related to crimes against women, including one candidate who declared a rape case.
The ADR report said the Supreme Court’s guidelines to political parties to publish reasons why they chose a candidate with a criminal case pending once again seemed to have no impact on the selection of candidates.
