Punjab Assembly Elections 2022: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

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Feb 11, 2022, 2:31:51 AM2/11/22

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Press Release

11th February, 2022

Dear Friends,

The Punjab Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1276 candidates out of 1304, who are contesting in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/punjab-assembly-elections-2022analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and

Punjab Election Watch and ADR have not analysed 28 candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website. The details of these candidates are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party
1	KULDEEP SINGH	Gurdaspur	Dera Baba Nanak	BJP
2	MUKHWINDER SINGH	Amritsar	Raja Sansi	BJP
3	ANIL JOSHI	Amritsar	Amritsar North	SAD
4	DEVINDER SINGH KOTLI	Sri Muktsar Sahib	Malout (Sc)	CPI(M)
5	BHAGWANT SINGH SAMAON	Barnala	Bhadaur (Sc)	CPI(ML)(L)
6	AMANDEEP SINGH GILL	Kapurthala	Bholath	Punjab Lok Congress Party
7	MOHINDERPAL SINGH	Ludhiana	Atam Nagar	SP
8	SARBJIT SINGH	Kapurthala	Bholath	Sanyukt Sangharsh Party
9	LOVEPREET KAUR	Firozpur	Firozpur Rural (Sc)	Jan Asra Party
10	DARSHAN SINGH	Ludhiana	Gill (Sc)	Aam Lok Party United
11	INDERPAL SINGH	Gurdaspur	Gurdaspur	Sanyukt Sangharsh Party
12	BHUPINDER SINGH	Jalandhar	Jalandhar Central	Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Party
13	JASKARAN SINGH KAHAN SINGH WALA	Faridkot	Kotkapura	Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)(Simranjit Singh Mann)
14	PARMINDER SINGH DHINDSA	Sangrur	Lehra	Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt)
15	MOHINDER PAL SINGH	Patiala	Patiala Rural	Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)(Simranjit Singh Mann)
16	BALDEV SINGH	Ludhiana	Raikot (Sc)	Aam Lok Party United
17	SATVIR SINGH SHEERA BANBHAURA	Malerkotla	Amargarh	IND
18	SURINDER KUMAR BEDI	Rupnagar	Anandpur Sahib	IND
19	SURINDER KAUR	Ludhiana	Atam Nagar	IND
20	VIPAN KUMAR	Jalandhar	Jalandhar West (Sc)	IND
21	PARAMJEET KAUR	Amritsar	Jandiala (Sc)	IND
22	SUNAINA	Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar	Kharar	IND
23	OM PARKASH KHICHI	Sri Muktsar Sahib	Malout (Sc)	IND
24	LAKHA SINGH SIDHANA	Bathinda	Maur	IND
25	GURMUKH SINGH	Patiala	Patiala	IND
26	SAURABH JAIN	Patiala	Patiala Rural	IND
27	SIKANDER SINGH S/O Bhoora Singh	Bathinda	Rampura Phul	IND
28	DR. KAMALJIT SINGH	Gurdaspur	Sri Hargobindpur (Sc)	IND

Table: List of Candidates not analysed

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 1276 candidates analyzed, 315(25%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, out of 1145 candidates analysed, 100(9%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 218(17%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, 77 (7%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2017 vs 2022

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 65(68%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 58(50%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 27 (38%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 4 (29%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 3 (15%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 16(14%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC and 3 (11%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 60(63%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 27(23%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP, 15 (21%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 3 (21%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 3 (15%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 9(8%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC and 2 (7%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 15 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 15 candidates 2 candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 4 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 33 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 57(49%) out of 117 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 25% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Punjab elections have given tickets to 11 % to 68 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Supreme Court in its directions dated 13th February, 2020 had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent 6 State Assembly elections held in 2020-21, it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers.

Financial Background

Figure: Share of Wealth among the Contesting Candidates

Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Punjab assembly elections 2022 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	226	18%
2 crores to 5 crores	176	14%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	244	19%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	287	22%
less than 10 lakhs	343	27%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 1276 candidates, 521(41%) are crorepatis. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, out of 1145 candidates, 428 (37%) were crorepatis.

Party wise Crorepati Candidates: The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties 89(93%) out of 96 candidates analysed from SAD, 107(92%) out of 117 candidates analysed from INC, 60(85%) out of 71 candidates analysed from BJP, 16(80%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BSP, 11(79%) out of 14 candidates analysed from Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), 81(69%) out of 117 candidates analysed from AAP and 16(59%) out of 27 candidates analysed from Punjab Lok Congress Party have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Punjab Assembly Elections 2022 is Rs 4.31 Crores. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 1145 candidates was Rs.3.49 crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 117 INC candidates analysed is Rs. 13.27 Crores, 96 SAD candidates analysed is Rs 12.69 Crores, 71 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 7.69 Crores, 117 AAP candidates have average assets of Rs 7.03 Crores, 14 Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) candidates have average assets of Rs 5.36 Crores, 27 Punjab Lok Congress Party candidates have average assets of Rs 5.27 Crores and 20 BSP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 4.27 Crores.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Punjab Assembly Elections are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Kulwant Singh	Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar	S.A.S. Nagar	AAP	2,03,89,24,039	34,63,89,400	2,38,53,13,439 238 Crore+	Y
2	Sukhbir Singh Badal	Fazilka	Jalalabad	SAD	80,75,21,287	1,21,89,06,528	2,02,64,27,815 202 Crore+	Y
3	Karan Kaur	Sri Muktsar Sahib	Muktsar	INC	41,62,025	1,55,00,00,000	1,55,41,62,025 155 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: There are 5 candidates who have declared zero assets. The details of these candidates are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Raj Kumar	Bathinda	Bathinda Urban	IND	0	0	0	Y
2	Jagneet Singh	Patiala	Ghanaur	IND	0	0	0	Y
3	Navjot Singh	Patiala	Sanour	Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Party	0	0	0	Y
4	Jyoti Tiwari	Patiala	Patiala	IND	0	0	0	Y
5	Gurjinder Singh	Fazilka	Fazilka	IND	0	0	0	Y

Table: Candidates with declared zero assets

Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with lowest assets (excluding zero assets candidates) are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Harchand Singh	Ludhiana	Payal (Sc)	IND	2,000	0	2,000 2 Thou+	N
2	Munish Kumar	Pathankot	Bhoa (Sc)	Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)(Simranjit Singh Mann)	2,100	0	2,100 2 Thou+	N
3	Davinder Singh	Amritsar	Amritsar North	Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)(Simranjit Singh Mann)	4,200	0	4,200 4 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with high liabilities: 653(51%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Rana Gurjeet Singh	Kapurthala	Kapurthala	INC	1,25,64,36,000 125 Crore+	71,75,02,000 71 Crore+	Y
2	Sukhbir Singh Badal	Fazilka	Jalalabad	SAD	2,02,64,27,815 202 Crore+	66,95,01,768 66 Crore+	Y
3	Aman Arora	Sangrur	Sunam	AAP	95,12,92,000 95 Crore+	22,88,16,000 22 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District	Total Asset (Rs)	Self-Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	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	Kulwant Singh	AAP	S.A.S. Nagar	Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar	2,38,53,13,439 238 Crore+	Salary Income as Managing Director of Janta Land Promoters Private Limited, Interest on FDR, Interest on Savings Account & Rental Income	Agriculture Income, Interest on FDR, Interest on Savings Account & Rental Income	2020-2021	16,33,49,150 16 Crore+	16,27,39,290 16 Crore+
2	Aman Arora	AAP	Sunam	Sangrur	95,12,92,000 95 Crore+	Business	Business	2020-2021	5,66,43,487 5 Crore+	2,77,03,541 2 Crore+
3	Manpreet Singh Badal	INC	Bathinda Urban	Bathinda	72,70,06,460 72 Crore+	Salary from Vidhan Sabha (ii) Rent of ShowRooms Interest , Agriculture (HUF)	NA	2020-2021	3,15,93,110 3 Crore+	15,90,760 15 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 candidates with highest income as declared in ITR

Undeclared PAN: A total of 49(4%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 695(54%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 483 (38%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 24 candidates are Diploma holders. 21 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 49 candidates are Illiterates. 4 candidates have not given their educational qualification.

Age details of candidates: 349(27%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 671 (53%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 254(20%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 2 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 90(7%) female candidates are contesting in the Punjab assembly election 2022. In 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, 81(7%) out of 1145 candidates analysed were women.

Recommendations of ADR

To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society and citizens. Supreme Court of India being the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection and absence of required laws.

Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping etc.

Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.

Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.

Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.

De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly puts up a candidate with a tainted background.

Political party should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.

Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).

Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time bound manner.

Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September, 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.

Implementation of the 25^th September, 2018 and 13^th February, 2020 SC orders on 'publication of criminal cases against candidates selected by political parties along with reasons for such selection' in its letter and spirit by directing the Election Commission of India a) to list out names of such tainted candidates selected by the political parties along with such reasons for such selection C8 including diligent publication of reasons in newspapers, T.V channels, party website etc, b) strict and constant reminders by ROs to the defaulters, c) list needs to be religiously prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court after every election, d) uploading of this list on ECI’s website for public inspection, e) a suitably heavy financial penalty levied on political parties for making insufficient disclosures, invalid and common reasons, selection of candidates based on winnability and f) Officer in-charge of a political party pertaining to submission of a compliance report should also be held accountable for such a breach.

The Election Commission of India and all State Election Commissions should make it mandatory in all elections; Parliamentary, Assembly and Local Body elections to carry display boards outside each and every polling booth showing a summarised version of candidates’ affidavits. The polling booths should essentially display details of candidate’s criminal records, assets and liabilities and education qualification.

The Election Commission of India under its ‘Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) as well as through other national campaigns on voter awareness held before every election should inform and aware the voters that (i) taking and giving cash or gifts/freebies for votes is a criminal offense, (ii) such instances should be brought to the notice of the ECI through its web application, (iii) inform voters that information on criminal records of candidates is available on the ECI website, outside polling booths and other sources that the ECI may use.

Political parties in India should be required to announce/publish the list of candidates contesting elections at least 3 months prior to elections.

Role of money and muscle power is evident from the fact that all major political parties in Punjab assembly elections 2022 have fielded 59% to 93% candidates who are crorepatis and 11% to 68 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. This close and alarming nexus between money power and muscle power has got so ingrained in our electoral system that the citizens are left hostage to the current situation. Money and muscle power hurt the principles of 'free and fair elections', 'participatory democracy' and 'level playing field'. The present circumstances therefore demand an extensive deliberation by the voters so that sanctity of elections is not ridiculed by tenacious entry of tainted candidates and candidates with abnormal multiplication of assets.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, in collaboration with Mr Gaurav Bakshi (actor and founder of www.HelpdesQ.in, a Goa-based legal start-up geared towards rooting out corruption in public life), is running #CleanUpGoaPolls, an online petition campaign on Change.org, urging the Election Commission of India to make it mandatory for the candidates accused of rape, murder, rioting and other serious offences to add the label “CRIMINAL RECORD” in big bold letters in all their publicity materials while campaigning. The petition has been signed by over 10,000 people and is rapidly growing. (Petition Links: English, Konkani Devnagri, Konkani Romi)

Contact Details

Punjab Election Watch

Mr. Jaskirat Singh
State Co-ordinator
+91-93160-84953
jask...@gmail.com

Parvinder Singh Kittna
State Co-ordinator

+91 9814313162
pavik...@gmail.com

Association for Democratic Reforms/National Election Watch

Media and Journalist Helpline

+91 80103 94248

Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj.Gen. Anil Verma (Retd)

Head

Association for Democratic Reforms,