[National Election Watch news] Press Release: 5th Phase Bihar Assembly Elections 2015 Out of all the 827 candidates, 254 (31%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves

Criminal background

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Candidates with criminal cases: Out of all the 827 candidates, 254 (31%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

·         Candidates with serious criminal cases: 193 (23%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, communal disharmony, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.

·         Candidates with cases related to murder: 15 candidates have declared cases related tomurder (Indian Penal Code Section-302). Mahboob Alam of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
(CPI (ML)(L)) from Balrampur constituency has declared 3 charges related to murder against himself.
Laxmi Narayan Mehta of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from Forbesganj constituency andShankar Singh, an Independent candidate from Rupauli constituency, have each declared 2 charges related to murder in their respective affidavits. In total, 1 candidate of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), 1 of CPI (ML)(L), 1 candidate of Communist Party of India (CPI), 2 fielded by Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), 1 candidate of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), 3 candidate ofBahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 2 candidate of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), 1 candidate fielded by Shiv Sena (SHS), and 3 Independent candidates have declared cases related to murder in their affidavits.

·         Candidates with cases related to attempt to murder: 48 candidates have declared cases ofattempt to murder (IPC Section-307). Chandan Singh of LJP from Alamnagar constituency andSanjay Paswan of Garib Janata Dal (Secular) from Harlakhi constituency have each declared 6charges related to attempt to murder in his affidavit. Shankar Singh, an Independent candidate fromRupauli constituency, and Mahboob Alam of CPI (ML)(L) from Balrampur constituency have each declared 5 charges related to attempt to murder against themselves. In total, 6 candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 5 of CPI (ML)(L), 2 candidates of JD(U), 1 candidates fielded by IUML, 2candidate of the National Janata Party (Indian), 3 candidates of CPI, 2 candidates of CPI(M) , 2candidates of Samajwadi Party (SP), 1 candidate of LJP, 7 candidates fielded by Jan Adhikar Party(Loktantrik), 1 candidates of Garib Janata Dal (Secular), 1 fielded by Samras Samaj Party, 1 candidate SHS, 1 candidate of Janta Dal Rashtravadi, 5 candidate of BSP, 1 candidate of NCP, 1candidate of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and 6 Independent candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder in their affidavits.

·         Candidates with cases related to crimes against women: 16 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. Gulab Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) fromJhanjharpur constituency and Jahur Alam, also a candidate of RJD from Supaul constituency along with Sushil Mishra of CPI(ML)(L) from Jale constituency have each declared 1 charge relating to rape (IPC Section-376).

·         Candidates with cases related to causing communal disharmony: 3 candidates have declared cases relating to causing communal disharmony. Saba Zafar, a candidate fielded by BJP fromAmour constituency and Ram Kumar Yadav of SP from Phulparas constituency have declared 1charge each related to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony (IPC Section-153A). Ashok Kumar Yadav of BJP from Keoti constituency has declared a charge related to Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class (IPC Section-295).

·         Candidates with cases related to robbery and dacoity: 7 candidates have declared cases related to robbery and dacoity. Hira Nand Mandal of Rashtriya Jankranti Party fromBahadurganj constituency has declared 3 offences related to robbery and dacoity, which include 1charge related to making preparation to commit dacoity (IPC Section-399), 1 charge related toassembling for purpose of committing dacoity (IPC Section - 402) and 1 charge related todacoity (IPC Section-395).

·         Candidates with cases related to kidnapping: 13 candidates have declared cases related tokidnapping.  Purshottam Jha, an Independent candidate from Khajauli constituency, has disclosed1 charge each related to kidnapping (IPC Section-363), kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person (IPC Section-365), kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc. (IPC Section-366) wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person (IPC Section-368) against himself.Shankar Singh, an Independent candidate from Rupauli constituency has declared 2 charges related tokidnapping for ransom, etc. (IPC Section-364A), 1 charge related kidnapping or abducting in order to murder (IPC Section-364) and 1 offence related to wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person (IPC Section-368).

·         Party wise candidates with criminal cases: 21 (55%) out of 38 candidates from BJP, 11 (55%) out of 20 candidates from CPI, 16 (29%) out of 55 candidates from BSP, 13 (52%) out of 25candidates fielded by JD(U), 12 (46%) out of 26 candidates from SP, 10 (50%) out of 20 candidates ofRJD, 7 (58%) out of 12 candidates fielded by INC, 21 (53%) out of 40 candidates of JAP(L), 12 (52%)out of 23 candidates of the CPI(ML)(L), 9 (69%) out of 13 candidates of CPI(M) and 55 (21%) out of262 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

·         Party wise Candidates with serious criminal cases:  15 (39%) out of 38 candidates fromBJP, 9 (45%) out of 20 candidates from CPI, 13 (24%) out of 55 candidates from BSP, 7 (28%) out of 25 candidates fielded by JD(U), 10 (38%) out of 26 candidates from SP, 6 (30%) out of 20 candidates ofRJD, 3 (25%) out of 12 candidates fielded by INC, 17 (43%) out of 40 candidates of JAP(L), 8 (35%)out of 23 candidates of the CPI(ML)(L), 7 (54%) out of 13 candidates of CPI(M) and 43 (16%) out of262 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

·         Red Alert constituencies*: 47 (82%) out of the total 57 constituencies in the fifth phase of Bihar assembly elections have 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases. Constituencies of Jhanjharpur, Kishanganj, Balrampur, Bisfi and Rupauli with 8 candidates have the highest number of candidates who have self-declared criminal cases against themselves.

*Red Alert Constituencies are those which have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases contesting elections. 

Financial background

·         Share of wealth among candidates : The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the fifth phase of assembly elections in Bihar is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs)	Number of candidates	Percentage of candidates
10 crores and above	8	0.97%
5 crores to 10 crores	17	2.06%
1 crore to 5 crores	157	18.98%
50 lakhs to 1 crore	126	15.24%
less than 50 lakhs	519	62.76%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

·         High asset candidates*:  The 3 richest candidates contesting in the fifth phase of assembly elections in Bihar are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Vijay Kumar Mishra	Araria	Araria	IND	1,06,86,017*	22,61,65,000*	23,68,51,017  23 Crore+	Y
2	Sunil Choudhary	Darbhanga	Benipur	JD(U)	12,18,13,591	2,05,00,000	14,23,13,591  14 Crore+	Y
3	Mujeeb Rehman	Darbhanga	Jale	SP	73,42,000*	13,12,00,000	13,85,42,000  13 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

*Total Assets includes income of self, spouse and dependents.

^* on assets value indicates that the candidate has not provided the total in their affidavits, it has been calculated on the basis of details provided by them in the same

·         Party wise crorepati candidates: 24 (63%) out of 38 candidates from BJP, 5 (25%) out of 20 candidates from CPI, 18 (72%) out of 25 candidates fielded by JD(U), 10 (38%) out of 26 candidates fromSP, 12 (60%) out of 20 candidates of RJD, 5 (42%) out of 12 candidates fielded by INC, 9 (81%) out of 11 candidates of LJP and 49 (19%) out of 262 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

·         Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the fifth phase of Bihar assembly elections is Rs 85.82 lakhs.

·         Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 38 BJPcandidates is Rs 2.29 crores, 20 CPI candidates have average assets of Rs 55 lakhs, 25 JD(U)candidates have average assets worth of Rs 2.16 crores, 12 INC candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.61 crores, 20 RJD candidates have average assets worth of Rs 3.13 crores, average assets of 26 SP candidates are Rs 1.89 crores, average assets of 11 LJP candidates are Rs 3.06 crores and 262 Independent candidates have average assets of Rs. 70 lakhs.

·         Low asset candidates:  2 candidates out of all the 827 candidates, Ram Lakhan Ram ofBhartiya Jagaran Party from Benipatti constituency and Zahoor Alam, an Independent candidate from Katihar constituency, have declared zero assets in their affidavits. The three candidates with lowest assets excluding the ones with zero assets are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Hatim	Araria	Sikti	Janta Dal Rashtravadi	600	0	600  6 Hund+	N
2	Mahendra Ram	Supaul	Triveniganj (Sc)	BSP	4,000	0	4,000  4 Thou+	Y
3	Md Gafur	Araria	Jokihat	Bharat Nirman Party	5,200	0	5,200  5 Thou+	N

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

·         Candidates with high liabilities: The top three candidates with highest liabilities are as given below;

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Ajay Kumar Sah	Kishanganj	Kishanganj	BSP	19,47,993  19 Lacs+	4,25,40,000  4 Crore+	4,44,87,993  4 Crore+	2,67,00,000  2 Crore+	Y
2	Sunil Choudhary	Darbhanga	Benipur	JD(U)	12,18,13,591  12 Crore+	2,05,00,000  2 Crore+	14,23,13,591  14 Crore+	2,60,04,591  2 Crore+	Y
3	Ajay Kumar Jha	Araria	Araria	LJP	11,53,93,419  11 Crore+	2,05,00,000  2 Crore+	13,58,93,419  13 Crore+	1,76,51,103  1 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with high liabilities

·         Undeclared PAN:  A total of 366 (44%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

·         Crorepati candidates with no PAN: 21 candidates with total assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore have not declared PAN details. The top 3 candidates with high assets who have not disclosed their PAN details in their affidavits are as given below;

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)
1	Parmanand Singh	Purnia	Rupauli	IND	86,40,435	5,32,00,000	6,18,40,435  6 Crore+
2	Ashok Mishra	Araria	Forbesganj	NCP	8,47,000*	4,71,57,000	4,80,04,000  4 Crore+
3	Arun Kumar	Saharsa	Saharsa	RJD	12,06,798	3,12,82,080	3,24,88,878  3 Crore+

Table:  Top three high asset candidates without PAN

^* on assets value indicates that the candidate has not provided the total in their affidavits, it has been calculated on the basis of details provided by them in the same

·         Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: 3 candidates have declared total annual income of more than Rs 1 crore. These candidates are as given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	District	Constituency	Total Asset (Rs)	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	Sunil Choudhary	JD(U)	Darbhanga	Benipur	14,23,13,591 14 Crore+	2014-2015	5,32,19,753 5 Crore+	4,92,55,237 4 Crore+
2	Sweety Singh	BJP	Kishanganj	Kishanganj	10,26,81,534 10 Crore+