Chandigarh:
Punjab will see as many as 23 candidates who are facing serious criminal charges contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. An increase from 18 such candidates who had contested the 2009 general elections.
According to the analysis of candidates' affidavits carried out by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 56 out of the 253 contestants in fray have declared assets more than Rs 1 crore, with the BJP candidates possessing a maximum average asset size of Rs 60 crore.
Asset sizes of eight candidates, who are re-contesting Lok Sabha elections, grew in the range of 44 percent, to over 300 percent in comparison to their wealth in 2009.
"Out of 253 candidates analysed in Punjab, 23 (9 percent) candidates have declared criminal cases pending against themselves. During 2009 elections, 18 (8 percent) out of 215 candidates had declared criminal cases which were pending," founding member Mr Jagdeep Chhokar said.
20 candidates have declared serious criminal cases. These include attempt to murder, criminal intimidation etc, he added. Out of 23 candidates with criminal cases, the Congress, SAD (Amritsar) and CPI (ML) have fielded 1 candidate each in the Lok Sabha elections, the report said.
Mr Chokkar informed that the three candidates in fray in Punjab, who are facing charges of attempt to murder include Mr Simarjeet Singh Bains (Independent candidate from Ludhiana), Mr Dharminder (Independent candidate from Jalandhar) and Mr Gurnam Singh (Independent candidate from Khadoor Sahib).
There are four Lok Sabha constituencies including Ludhiana, Khadoor Sahib, Bathinda and Amritsar where at least 3 candidates in each constituency have a criminal background, said the report.
Out of the 253 candidates contesting in the elections, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate from Fatehgarh Sahib - Mr Kulwant Singh, Congress nominee from Anandpur Sahib - Ms Ambika Soni and BJP candidate from Amritsar - Mr Arun Jaitley are the top three candidates with the highest assets worth Rs 139 crore, Rs 118 crore and Rs 113 crore respectively.
Out of the 56 crorepati candidates, the Congress has fielded 12, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 8 and the SAD 10 candidates, whose assets were in excess of Rs 1 crore.