Jupinderjit Singh
Chandigarh, February 11
The Punjab Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1276 candidates out of 1304, who are contesting in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022.
This report was released by Jaskirat Singh Trustee ADR, Parvinder Singh Kittna Punjab Election Watch and Harpreet Singh here today. Out of 1276 candidates analysed, 228 are from National parties, 256 are from State parties, 345 are from registered unrecognized parties and 447 candidates are contesting independently.
Punjab Election Watch and ADR could not analyse 28 candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website.
Out of 1276 candidates analysed, 315(25%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves this election. It includes 218 or 17 percent with serious offences.
In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, out of 1145 candidates analysed, 100(9%) had declared criminal cases against themselves, including 7 percent with serious offences.
Among the major parties, 65(68%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 58(50%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 27 (38%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 4 (29%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 3 (15%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 16(14%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC and 3 (11%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Among the major parties, 60(63%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 27(23%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 15 (21%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 3 (21%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 3 (15%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 9(8%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC and 2 (7%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
15 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 15 candidates 2 candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376). 4 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves. 33 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.
57(49%) out of 117 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Out of the 1276 candidates, 521(41%) are crorepatis. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, out of 1145 candidates, 428 (37%) were crorepatis.
The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties 89(93%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 107(92%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC, 60(85%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 16(80%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 11(79%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 81(69%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP and 16(59%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022 is Rs 4.31 Crores. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 1145 candidates was Rs.3.49 crores.
Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 117 INC candidates analysed is Rs. 13.27 Crores, 96 SAD candidates analysed is Rs 12.69 Crores, 71 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 7.69 Crores, 117 AAP candidates have average assets of Rs 7.03 Crores, 14 Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) candidates have average assets of Rs 5.36 Crores, 27 Punjab Lok Congress Party candidates have average assets of Rs 5.27 Crores and 20 BSP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 4.27 Crores.
Highest asset candidates in fray are Kulwant Singh of AAP from SAS Nagar at 238 crores, Sukhbir Singh Badal of SAD from Jalalabad at 202 crores, Karan Kaur of INC from Muktsar at 155 crores. Five candidates have declared zero assets. 653(51%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. Among the candidates who have declared highest liabilities are Rana Gurjit Singh of INC at 71.75 crores, Sukhbir Singh Badal of SAD at 66.95 crores, Aman Arora of AAP at 22.88 crores. Candidates who have declared highest annual income are Kulwant Singh of AAP from SAS Nagar at 16.33 crores, Aman Arora of AAP at 5.66 crores, Manpreet Singh Badal of INC at 3.15 crores.
695(54%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 483 (38%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 24 candidates are Diploma holders. 21 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 49 candidates are Illiterates. 4 candidates have not given their educational qualification.
349(27%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 671 (53%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 254(20%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 2 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.
90(7%) female candidates are contesting in the Punjab assembly election 2022. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, 81(7%) out of 1145 candidates analysed were women.
57 constituencies have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases in fray, says survey
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