Most Candidates With Criminal Record of AAP in Gujarat: Report

Ahmedabad:

As many as 330 of the 1,621 candidates, or about 20 percent, contesting next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections have had criminal cases registered against them, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Monday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leads the list with 61 such candidates.

The total number of candidates with criminal cases was 238 in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls.

According to a report released by the ADR on Monday after a survey of candidates from both phases, 60 Congress candidates and 32 from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criminal cases against them.

A total of 192 candidates have been booked for serious crimes related to murder, rape and attempted murder, including 96 from Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and AAP, the ADR said citing the analysis of affidavits of all 1,621 contestants for the two-stage polls scheduled for December 1 and 5.

The 330 candidates with criminal cases against their names include 167 contesting 89 seats in the first phase, out of a total of 788 candidates, and 163 in the second phase out of 93 seats, out of a total of 822 candidates, the ADR analysis revealed.

In terms of candidates with serious crimes, AAP leads the list with 43, followed by Congress with 28 and BJP with 25. There are 181, 179 and 182 candidates from AAP, Congress and BJP respectively competing in the polls for the Assembly of 182 Member States.

The ADR said it defines serious crimes as those for which bail cannot be paid, carrying a maximum sentence of five years and more. These are crimes related to sexual assault, murder, kidnapping and rape, as well as crimes against women and corruption cases.

As many as 18 candidates have been named in crimes against women, while one candidate has been charged with rape. Five have murder charges against their names and 20 are charged with attempted murder.

Kiran Patel, who is on an AAP ticket from Daskroi seat in Ahmedabad district, has filed a murder case against him. Patan seat congressional candidate Kirit Patel has been charged with attempted murder, while BJP’s Jetha Bharwad, fighting from Shehra seat in Panchmahal district, has been charged with rape, kidnapping, extortion, trespassing of woman’s modesty, etc.

The ADR claimed in its report that Supreme Court directions had no effect on political parties in selecting candidates.

On February 13, 2020, the Supervisory Board specifically instructed political parties to state reasons for such a selection and why other persons with no criminal record could not be selected as candidates.

According to these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection must relate to the qualifications, achievements and merits of the candidate concerned.

“During parliamentary elections held in 2022 in six states, political parties were observed to give baseless and unfounded reasons such as the popularity of the person, good social work, matters being politically motivated, etc.” said the ADR. “These are not valid and convincing reasons to contest candidates with tainted backgrounds. These data clearly show that political parties have no interest in electoral reform and that our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who legislators,” it said.

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