Page 19 - 15MAY2019E

general elections
Election to 542
Lok Sabha seats
is being conducted
in seven phases
elections were facing criminal charges, with 158 hav-
ing serious cases and 12 of them convicted cases. Five
candidates had declared cases related to murder, 24
had declared cases related to attempt to murder, four
had declared cases related to kidnapping, 21 had de-
clared cases related to crime against women and 16
candidates had declared cases related to hate speech.
The ADR had analysed the self-sworn affidavits of
928 out of 943 candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha
phase four across 71 constituencies in eight states.
“There are 15 candidates who have not been ana-
lyzed due to unavailability of properly scanned and
complete affidavits, at the time of making this re-
port,” the ADR had said. It said 210 out of 928 candi-
dates analysed face criminal charges. “A total of 158
out of 928 candidates analysed have declared serious
criminal cases and 12 candidates have declared con-
victed cases.”
In terms of parties, 25 out of 57 candidates from the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 18 out of 57 candidates
from Congress, 11 out of 54 candidates from Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP), 12 out of 21 candidates analysed
from Shiv Sena and 60 out of 345 Independent candi-
dates have declared criminal cases, few news agency
Tehelka / 15 may 2019 19 www.Tehelka.com
election 2018
reports highlighted.
“Among the major parties, 20 out of 57 candidates
from BJP, 9 out of 57 candidates from Congress, 10 out
of 54 candidates from BSP, 9 out of 21 candidates ana-
lysed from Shiv Sena and 45 out of 345 Independent
candidates have declared serious criminal cases,” the
ADR said, adding that 37 out of 71 constituencies have
three or more contesting candidates who have face
criminal charges.
There were about 12.79 core voters in Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha,
Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.
The number of candidates was 972. While 17 seats in
Maharashtra went to polls in the fourth phase, 13 seats
each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West
Bengal, six in Madhya Pradesh, six in Odisha, five in
Bihar and three in Jharkhand voted on April 29.
The election, the world’s biggest democratic exer-
cise with about 900 million voters, started on April
11 with PM Narendra Modi in the lead. The last phase
of voting is on May 19, with results released four days
later. There are a total of 545 seats in parliament’s
lower house.
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