Uttarakhand

• 12 Mar 2022

Criminal Cases Against 27 Percent of 70 Candidates Who Won Elections

Why in News

• A recent report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an electoral reform advocacy group, states that 19 (27 per cent) of all 70 candidates who won the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections have criminal cases against them.

Key Points

• The ADR in its report said that with Uttarakhand Election Watch, self-declared affidavits by all 70 candidates who won the Uttarakhand assembly elections in 2022 have been analyzed. Out of the 70 winning candidates, 19 (27 per cent) have given information about criminal cases registered against them in their affidavits.
• In the 2017 Uttarakhand assembly elections, 22 out of 70 MLAs (31 per cent) had declared criminal cases against them.
• Out of 47 winning candidates of the BJP in the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections, 8 (17 percent) candidates have criminal background.
• Of the 19 winning Congress candidates, 8 (42) per cent have given information about criminal cases against them in their affidavits.
• Of the two winning BSP candidates (50 per cent) and two independents, both have declared criminal cases.
• The ADR in its analysis found that five out of 47 BJP candidates (11 per cent), Congress four out of 19 winning candidates (21 per cent) and one out of two independents have declared serious criminal cases against them.
• According to the ADR report, out of 70 winning candidates, 58 (83 per cent) candidates are millionaires. In the 2017 assembly elections, 51 (73 percent) candidates were millionaires.