New Delhi: 114 candidates contesting the Delhi Assembly polls have criminal cases against them, election watchdog ADR said on Friday and noted that 19 out of 70 were ‘red alert' constituencies which had at least three tainted candidates each.
The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its report, has analysed the affidavit of 673 candidates contesting the February polls, disclosed that BJP tops the list with 27 candidates followed by AAP with 21 and Congress with 12 candidates.
The agency also observed that Tughlaqabad leads the fray in red alert constituencies with highest 5 tainted candidates contesting from here closely followed by Rajouri Garden and Tilak Nagar with 4 tainted candidates.
The other ‘red alert' constituencies includes Najafgarh, Babarpur, Ghonda, Nangloi, Dwarka, Adarsh Nagar, Matia Mahal Shahdara, Chhatarpur, Shalimar bagh, New Delhi, Mundka, Matiala, Okhla, Hari Nagar and RK Puram.
Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member of ADR, said, “Out of 673 candidates (17 per cent) 114 have declared criminal cases against themselves. During the 2013 and 2008 Delhi Assembly elections, the percentage of candidates with criminal cases was 16 and 14 respectively,”
Out of 114 candidates, 74 have serious criminal cases against them including crime against women, murder, assault, and attempt to murder and loss to exchequer.
