National Election Watch and ADR analyzed the criminal, financial, educational and other background of the candidates contesting for 2018 Rajya Sabha election.
By Afsana Rashid
Srinagar: Analyzing self-sworn affidavits of the candidates contesting for elections to the Upper House of the Parliament, National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) observed that 25 percent Rajya Sabha candidates had declared criminal cases against themselves and average assets of candidates analyzed was above Rs. 120 crores. National Election Watch and ADR analyzed the criminal, financial, educational and other background of the candidates contesting for 2018 Rajya Sabha election.
The self-sworn affidavits of 63 out of 64 candidates contesting for the elections were analyzed by National Election Watch and ADR as the affidavit of one of the candidates was found badly scanned. For the 58 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled across 16 states, 33 candidates from 10 states had been unanimously elected. Voting for the remaining 25 seats were held in six states; Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana on March 23. The Upper House has a total of 245 seats.
Criminal Background
National Election Watch and ADR, in an emailed statement, March 21 said that while 16 candidates (25 percent) had declared criminal cases against themselves, eight candidates (13 percent) had declared serious criminal cases against themselves such as kidnapping, attempt to murder, robbery etc.
Financial Background
Out of the 63 candidates analyzed by National Election Watch and ADR, 55 candidates (87 percent) were crorepatis and the average asset of 63 candidates analyzed was Rs 122.13 crores.
Party wise crorepati candidates: Among the major parties 26 candidates (90 percent) out of 29 candidates from BJP, 10 (91 percent) out of 11 candidates from INC, three (75 percent) out of four candidates from AITC, three candidates (100 percent) from TRS and two candidates (100 percent) from JD(U) and one candidate (100 percent) from SP had declared assets worth more than one crore rupees.
Top 05 candidates with high assets: Mahendra Prasad contesting from JD (U) – Bihar was found with the highest declared assets worth Rs.4078.40 crores followed by Jaya Bachchan from contesting from SP-Uttar Pradesh with assets worth Rs. 1001 crores, B M Farooq contesting from JD(S)-Karnataka with assets worth Rs. 766 crores, Abhishek Manu Singhvi contesting from INC–West Bengal with assets worth Rs. 649 crores and C M Ramesh contesting from TDP-Andhra Pradesh with assets worth Rs. 258 crores.
Top 05 candidates with low assets: Achyutananda Samananta contesting from Orissa (BJD) was found with the lowest declared total assets worth Rs. 04.96 lakhs followed by Samir Oraon from Jharkhand (BJP) with assets worth Rs. 18.69 lakhs, V. Muraleedharan from Maharashtra (BJP) with assets worth Rs. 27.71 lakhs and Rajmani Patel from Madhya Pradesh (INC) with assets worth Rs. 34.57 lakhs.
Top 05 candidates with declared liabilities: Out of the total 41 candidates (65 percent), who had declared liabilities, Jaya Bachchan contesting from Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest liabilities with Rs. 105.64 crores followed by Abhishek Manu Singhvi contesting from West Bengal (INC) with Rs. 98 crores further followed by B M Farooq contesting from Karnataka – JD(S) with Rs. 97.93 crores andVemireddy Prabhakar Reddy contesting from Andhra Pradesh (Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party) with Rs. 96 crores and C M Ramesh contesting from Andhra Pradesh (TDP) with Rs. 39 crores.
Candidates with high income as declared in the Income Tax Returns (ITR): 13 candidates had declared total annual income of more than rupees one crore.
Seven candidates (11 percent) out of 63 candidates analyzed had not declared income tax details. Some candidates, according to National Election Watch and ADR’s statement, may be exempted from filing Income Tax Returns.
Sources of Income: Six candidates (10 percent) out of 63 candidates analyzed had not declared their sources of income.
Other Background Details
Education details of candidates: Seven candidates (11 percent) had declared their educational qualification to be between 10th and 12th, while 55 candidates (87 percent) had declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.
Age details of candidates: None of the candidates had declared their age below 42 years, 38 candidates (60 percent) had declared their age between 42 to 60 years and 25 candidates (40 percent) had declared their age between 61 to 80 years.
Gender details of candidates: Among the 63 contesting candidates analyzed, five (eight percent) were women.
Dhiraj Kumar Sahu (INC) contesting from Jharkhand had not been analyzed by National Election Watch and ADR as according to them his affidavit was badly scanned.
(Afsana Rashid is a senior journalist based at Srinagar. she can be reached at afsanabhat@gmail.com)
