Press Release: Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 : Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

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Press Release

Date: November 18, 2023

Dear Friends,

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Rajasthan Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 1875 candidates, who are contesting in the Rajasthan 2023 Assembly Elections. Out of 1875 candidates analysed, 688 are from National parties, 105 are from State parties, 348 are from registered unrecognized parties and 734 candidates are contesting independently.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and-other-details-candidates-31

Party	Total Contesting Candidates	Candidates with declared Criminal Cases	% of candidates with declared criminal cases	Candidates with declared serious criminal cases	% of candidates with declared serious criminal cases	No. of Crorepatis	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
National Parties	688	151	22%	111	16%	413	60%
State Parties	105	32	30%	27	26%	40	38%
Registered Unrecognized Party	348	46	13%	29	8%	47	14%
Independent	734	97	13%	69	9%	151	21%
Total	1875	326	17%	236	13%	651	35%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 1875 candidates analysed in Rajasthan Assembly elections 2023, 326(17%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, out of 2188 candidates analysed, 320(15%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 236(13%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, 195 (9%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,61(31%) out of 200 candidates analysed from BJP, 47(24%) out of 199 candidates analysed from INC, 12 (6%) out of 185 candidates analysed from BSP, 18 (21%) out of 86 candidates analysed from AAP, 28 (36%) out of 78 candidates analysed from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, 13 (72%) out of 18 candidates analysed from CPI(M) and 2 (12%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Bhartiya Tribal Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,42(21%) out of 200 candidates analysed from BJP, 34(17%) out of 199 candidates analysed from INC, 8 (4%) out of 185 candidates analysed from BSP, 15 (17%) out of 86 candidates analysed from AAP, 24 (31%) out of 78 candidates analysed from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, 12 (67%) out of 18 candidates analysed from CPI(M) and 1 (6%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Bhartiya Tribal Party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

Party	Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018			Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases
BJP	198	33	17%	200	61	31%
INC	193	43	22%	199	47	24%
BSP	178	31	17%	185	12	6%
AAP	141	26	18%	86	18	21%
Bhartiya Tribal Party	10	1	10%	17	2	12%
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party	54	9	17%	78	28	36%
CPI(M)	22	16	73%	18	13	72%
Independent	787	92	12%	734	97	13%

Table: Party Wise Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 36 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 36 candidates 1 candidate has declared case 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: 34 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 45(23%) out of 200 constituencies are red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 48 (24%) constituencies in the Rajasthan assembly elections 2018 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 17% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Rajasthan elections have given tickets from 6 % to 72 % 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 4 State Assembly elections held in 2023, 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 Rajasthan assembly elections 2023 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	259	13.81%
2 crores to 5 crores	200	10.67%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	408	21.76%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	501	26.72%
less than 10 lakhs	507	27.04%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 1875 candidates analysed, 651(35%) are crorepatis. In 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, out of 2188 candidates, 597(27%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2018 Vs 2023

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 176(88%) out of 200 candidates analysed from BJP, 167(84%) out of 199 candidates analysed from INC, 36(20%) out of 185 candidates analysed from BSP, 29(34%) out of 86 candidates analysed from AAP, 36(46%) out of 78 candidates analysed from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, 5(28%) out of 18 candidates analysed from CPI(M) and 1(6%) out of 17 candidates analysed from Bhartiya Tribal Party have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Party	Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018			Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
BJP	198	160	81%	200	176	88%
INC	193	149	77%	199	167	84%
BSP	178	40	22%	185	36	20%
AAP	141	25	18%	86	29	34%
Bhartiya Tribal Party	10	0	0%	17	1	6%
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party	54	19	35%	78	36	46%
CPI(M)	22	4	18%	18	5	28%
Independent	787	133	17%	734	151	21%

Table: Party Wise Crorepati Candidates: 2018 vs 2023

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates: 2018 vs 2023

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 is Rs 3.12 Crores. In 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 2188 Candidates was Rs. 2.12 crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 200 BJP candidates analysed is Rs. 8.24 Crores, 199 INC candidates analysed is Rs 10.38 Crores, 185 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 1.70 Crores, 86 AAP candidates have average assets of Rs 1.35 Crores, 78 Rashtriya Loktantrik Party candidates have average assets of Rs 2.12 Crores, 18 CPI(M) candidates have average assets of Rs 59.65 Lakhs and 17 Bhartiya Tribal Party have average assets worth Rs 18.96 Lakhs.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Rafique Mandelia	Churu	Churu	INC	91,05,98,462	75,42,40,200	1,66,48,38,662 166 Crore+	Y
2	Prem Singh Bajor	Sikar	Neem Ka Thana	BJP	73,07,31,111	50,16,00,000	1,23,23,31,111 123 Crore+	Y
3	Anjana Udayalal	Chittorgarh	Nimbahera	INC	69,64,09,569	53,30,75,000	1,22,94,84,569 122 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: There are 8 candidates who have declared zero assets. The details of these candidates are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Purushotam Bhati	Ajmer	Beawar	IND	0	0	0	N
2	Ved Prakash Yadav	Alwar	Mundawar	IND	0	0	0	Y
3	Hemant Sharma Advocate	Alwar	Behror	Indian Peoples Green Party	0	0	0	Y
4	Banwari Lal Sharma	Alwar	Thanagazi	BSP	0	0	0	Y
5	Kanhaiyalal	Bikaner	Nokha	IND	0	0	0	Y
6	Nahar Singh	Ganganagar	Raisinghnagar (SC)	Majdoor Kisan Akali Dal	0	0	0	Y
7	Badrilal	Jhalawar	Dag (SC)	Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram)	0	0	0	Y
8	Deepak Kumar Meena	Sawaimadhopur	Sawai Madhopur	Samrat Mihir Bhoj Samaj Party	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 given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Labh Chandra Kumhar	Chittorgarh	Nimbahera	Bahujan Mukti Party	500^*	0	500 5 Hund+	Y
2	Kusum Lata	Karauli	Hindaun (SC)	Bahujan Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samta Party	500	0	500 5 Hund+	Y
3	Renu Kumari Mahawar	Dausa	Sikrai (SC)	Bahujan Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samta Party	1,000	0	1,000 1 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

* 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 liabilities: 922(49%) 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)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Rafique Mandelia	Churu	Churu	INC	1,66,48,38,662 166 Crore+	82,30,19,305 82 Crore+	0	Y
2	Prem Singh Bajor	Sikar	Neem Ka Thana	BJP	1,23,23,31,111 123 Crore+	# 71,29,10,505 71 Crore+	5,95,580 5 Lacs+	Y
3	Manoj Ghumaria	Jhunjhunu	Khetri	BSP	81,21,17,331 81 Crore+	70,68,84,557 70 Crore+	0	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

#Disputed 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 Name	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	Harendra Mirdha	INC	Nagaur	Nagaur	18,83,58,899 18 Crore+	Agriculture and Business	NA	2022-2023	13,14,16,425 13 Crore+	5,87,66,236 5 Crore+
2	Dr. Param Navdeep Singh	Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram)	Sangaria	Hanumangarh	91,79,18,270 91 Crore+	Doctor, Rent, Agriculture, Property Dealer	Pension	2022-2023	10,55,73,344 10 Crore+	10,22,37,128 10 Crore+
3	Sharawan Choudhary S/O Prem Singh	BJP	Fatehpur	Sikar	81,59,26,560 81 Crore+	Business	Business	2022-2023	6,26,91,970 6 Crore+	6,02,20,600 6 Crore+

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

Undeclared PAN: A total of 94(5%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 774(41%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 916(49%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 37 candidates are Diploma holders. 137 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 11 candidates are Illiterates.

Age details of candidates: 643(34%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 868 (46%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 356 (19%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 8 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 183(10%) female candidates are contesting in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023. In 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, 182(8%) out of 2188 candidates analysed were women.

Party wise Gender Details

S.No.	Party Name	Total candidates analyzed	Men	Women	% of Women candidates
1	Independent	734	668	66	9%
2	INC	199	171	28	14%
3	BSP	185	163	22	12%
4	BJP	200	180	20	10%
5	AAP	86	81	5	6%
6	Rashtriya Loktantrik Party	78	73	5	6%
7	Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram)	47	43	4	9%
8	Indian Peoples Green Party	22	18	4	18%
9	Abhinav Loktantra Party	11	8	3	27%
10	Bahujan Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samta Party	3	0	3	100%
11	Bhartiya Tribal Party	17	16	1	6%
12	RLD	1	1	0	0%
13	CPI(M)	18	18	0	0%
14	Other Parties	274	252	22	8%
Total		1875	1692	183	10%

Table: Party Wise analysis of candidates on the basis of gender

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 fields a candidate with a tainted background.
Political parties 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 Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 have fielded 6% to 88% candidates who are crorepatis and 6% to 72 % 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.