Haryana polls: 117 candidates face criminal cases

Election campaigns are at their peak and Jatland is gearing up for the Assembly elections on Oct. 21.

About a week from now, nearly 1.83 crore voters including 1.07 lakh service voters, will exercise their franchise and choose a representative from 1,168 candidates who are in the fray for the 90-member Assembly in Haryana.

In all, 117 (or 10%) of the 1,138 candidates whose self-sworn affidavits were analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have criminal cases against them. The number of candidates with criminal cases against them has gone up by 23 from 94 in the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections to 117 this year.

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Among the 117 candidates with criminal cases who are contesting this year, 70 (or 6%) are facing serious criminal cases.

Among the major parties, the Indian National Congress has the highest number of candidates at 13 (or 15%) to have declared criminal cases in their affidavits. For the BSP, 12 (or 14%) out of 86 candidates have declared criminal cases, for the Jannayak Janta Party, 10 (or 11%) out of 87 candidates and for the Indian National Lok Dal, 7 (or 9%) out of 80 candidates have declared criminal cases against them.

For the BJP, 3 out of 89 candidates have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.

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According to the ADR report, five candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women with two candidates being named in cases related to rape (IPC Section-376). Five other candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307).
Overall, 11 candidates have declared cases with convictions.

Owing to the number of candidates with criminal cases, 15 constituencies of Haryana are listed as red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against them.