Press Release: Kerala Assembly Elections 2026: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

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Press Release

Date: April 4, 2026

Dear Friends,

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Kerala Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 863 out of 883 candidates, who are contesting in the Kerala 2026 Assembly Elections. Out of 883 contesting candidates, 375 are from National parties, 81 are from State parties, 145 are from registered unrecognized parties and 282 candidates are contesting Independently.

This report also includes Analysis of Assets Comparison of Re-Contesting MLAs in the Kerala Assembly Election 2026

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/Analysis-of-Criminal-and-Financial-background-details-of-contesting-candidates-in-Kerala-2026-Assembly-elections

Party	Total Contesting Candidates	Total Contesting Candidates Analysed	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	375	360	192	53%	126	35%	194	54%
State Parties	81	80	48	60%	23	29%	57	71%
Registered Unrecognized Party	145	142	46	32%	33	23%	37	26%
Independent	282	281	38	14%	19	7%	51	18%
Total	883	863	324	38%	201	23%	339	39%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 863 candidates analysed in Kerala Assembly elections 2026, 324(38%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In the 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, out of 928 candidates analysed, 355(38%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 201(23%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, 167 (18%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2021 vs 2026

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,72(85%) out of 85 candidates analysed from INC, 59(63%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP, 51(66%) out of 77 candidates analysed from CPI(M), 21(84%) out of 25 candidates analysed from IUML, 13(54%) out of 24 candidates analysed from CPI, 5(42%) out of 12 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress (M), 6(75%) out of 8 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress and 1 (100%) out of 1 candidate each analysed from NCP, Kerala Congress (B) and Kerala Congress (Jacob) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,60(71%) out of 85 candidates analysed from INC, 39(42%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP, 21(27%) out of 77 candidates analysed from CPI(M), 13(52%) out of 25 candidates analysed from IUML, 2(8%) out of 24 candidates analysed from CPI, 2(17%) out of 12 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress (M), 4(50%) out of 8 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress and 1 (100%) out of 1 candidate each analysed from NCP, Kerala Congress (B) and Kerala Congress (Jacob) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 15 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 15 candidates 1 candidate has declared case related to person committing rape repeatedly on the same woman (IPC Section- 376(2)(n)).

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: 13 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) and (BNS Section-109) against themselves.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 38% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 have given tickets from 42% to 100 % 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 2 State Assembly elections held in 2025, 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 Kerala assembly elections 2026 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
Rs. 5 crores and above	91	10.5%
Rs. 2 crores to Rs. 5 crores	101	11.7%
Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 2 crores	307	35.6%
Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs.50 lakhs	192	22.2%
less than Rs.10 lakhs	172	19.9%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 863 candidates analysed, 339(39%) are crorepatis. In 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, out of 928 candidates, 249(27%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2021 Vs 2026

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 61(72%) out of 85 candidates analysed from INC, 52(56%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP, 52(68%) out of 77 candidates analysed from CPI(M), 21(84%) out of 25 candidates analysed from IUML, 12(50%) out of 24 candidates analysed from CPI, 11(92%) out of 12 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress (M), 8(100%) out of 8 candidates analysed from Kerala Congress, 2(67%) out of 3 candidates analysed from NCP(SP), 1(100%) out of 1 candidate analysed from Kerala Congress (B) and 1(100%) out of 1 candidate analysed from Kerala Congress (Jacob) have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Total assets of candidates: The total assets of 863 analysed candidates are Rs. 2,403 Crores.

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 is Rs 2.78 Crores. In 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 928 Candidates was Rs. 1.69 Crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 93 BJP candidates analysed is Rs. 5.70 Crores, 85 INC candidates analysed is Rs 3.93 Crores, 77 CPI(M) candidates have average assets of Rs 2.32 Crores, 25 IUML candidates have average assets of Rs 6.64 Crores, 24 CPI candidates have average assets of Rs 1.60 Crores, 12 Kerala Congress (M) candidates have average assets of Rs 10.44 Crores, 8 Kerala Congress candidates have average assets of Rs 39.64 Crores and 3 NCP(SP) candidates have average assets worth Rs 3.14 Crores.
Highest assets candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Reji Cheriyan	Alappuzha	Kuttanad	Kerala Congress	8,91,36,084	2,10,05,00,000	2,18,96,36,084 218 Crore+	Y
2	Chenkal Rajasekharan	Thiruvananthapuram	Neyyattinkara	BJP	83,18,67,985	33,74,82,917	1,16,93,50,902 116 Crore+	Y
3	Rajeev Chandrasekhar	Thiruvananthapuram	Nemom	BJP	96,91,87,627	15,07,20,000	1,11,99,07,627 111 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 Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Sreedharan	Malappuram	Malappuram	IND	0	0	0	Y
2	Sakkeer S/O Illyas	Malappuram	Ponnani	IND	0	0	0	N
3	Paul P Chacko (Shaji Kadayil)	Kottayam	Puthuppally	BSP	0	0	0	Y
4	Shiny A C	Kottayam	Poonjar	BSP	0	0	0	Y
5	Sreekantan Nair V.	Thiruvananthapuram	Kazhakkoottam	IND	0	0	0	Y
6	Sreekantan Nair V.	Thiruvananthapuram	Vattiyoorkavu	IND	0	0	0	Y
7	Venganoor Asokan	Thiruvananthapuram	Kovalam	IND	0	0	0	N
8	N.Jayarajan	Thiruvananthapuram	Kovalam	IND	0	0	0	Y

Table: Candidates with declared zero assets

Lowest 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	Ashna Thambi	Kottayam	Ettumanoor	SUCI(C)	84	0	84	N
2	Thampi Kavumpadam	Kottayam	Kanjirappally	BSP	500	0	500 5 Hund+	N
3	Karthika Devi M	Thiruvananthapuram	Thiruvananthapuram	Janam Rashtriya Party	500	0	500 5 Hund+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with highest liabilities: 547(62%) 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	Rajeev Chandrasekhar	Thiruvananthapuram	Nemom	BJP	1,11,99,07,627 111 Crore+	1,09,01,77,526 109 Crore+	0	Y
2	Shibu Theckumpuram	Ernakulam	Kothamangalam	Kerala Congress	68,64,51,764 68 Crore+	92,09,54,987 92 Crore+	500 5 Hund+	Y
3	P V Anvar S/O Shoukathali	Kozhikkode	Beypore	IND	65,35,88,645 65 Crore+	40,06,63,438 40 Crore+	0	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

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

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District Name	Total Assets (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	Dr. Prathap Kumar N	BJP	KOLLAM	KOLLAM	54,99,83,000 54 Crore+	Salary from Meditrina Hospitals and Professional fee from other hospitals	Salary from Meditrina Hospitals	2024-2025	9,46,22,340 9 Crore+	6,55,57,530 6 Crore+
2	Shibu Theckumpuram	Kerala Congress	KOTHAMANGALAM	ERNAKULAM	68,64,51,764 68 Crore+	Business	Business	2024-2025	8,51,81,530 8 Crore+	5,54,47,080 5 Crore+
3	Padmaja Venugopal	BJP	THRISSUR	THRISSUR	32,84,62,472 32 Crore+	Business (loan , interest)	Professional income, rent, business (loan, interest)	2025-2026	2,40,56,090 2 Crore+	4,36,260 4 Lacs+

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

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates:414(48%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 397(46%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 44 candidates are Diploma holders. 7 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 1 candidate is Illiterate.

Age details of candidates: 140(16%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 497 (58%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 224 (26%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years. There are 2 candidates who have declared their age to be above 80 years.

Gender details of candidates: 92(11%) female candidates are contesting in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026. In 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections, 103(11%) out of 928 candidates analysed were women.

Analysis of Assets Comparison of Re-Contesting MLAs

Number of re-contesting MLAs: Number of re-contesting MLAs analysed in the Kerala assembly elections of 2026 is 104.

Average Assets in 2021 Elections: The average assets of these 104 re-contesting MLAs fielded by various parties including independents in 2021 was Rs 3.56 Crores.

Average Assets in 2026 Elections: The average asset of these 104 re-contesting MLAs in 2026 is Rs 4.30 Crores.

Average Asset growth in 5 years (2021-2026): The average asset growth for these 104 re- contesting MLAs, between the Kerala Assembly Elections of 2021 and 2026 is Rs 74.36 Lacs.

Percentage growth in 5 years (2021-2026): Average percentage growth in assets for these 104 re-contesting MLAs is 21%.

Comparative analysis of party wise average assets of re-contesting MLAs in 2021 and 2026

S.No.	Party in Kerala Assembly Elections 2026	Number of re-contesting MLAs	Average Assets in Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 (In Rs.)	Average Assets in Kerala Assembly Elections 2021 (In Rs.)	Average Assets Increase/Decrease (In Rs.)	Average % Increase/Decrease in Assets
1.	CPI(M)	50	2,48,06,057 2 Crore+	1,63,66,083 1 Crore+	84,39,974 84 Lacs+	51.57%
2.	INC	18	5,31,50,297 5 Crore+	4,17,57,168 4 Crore+	1,13,93,129 1 Crore+	27.28%
3.	Indian Union Muslim League	8	5,20,03,620 5 Crore+	4,22,65,332 4 Crore+	97,38,288 97 Lacs+	23.04%
4.	CPI	7	1,24,00,120 1 Crore+	98,78,916 98 Lacs+	25,21,204 25 Lacs+	25.52%
5.	IND	6	16,95,47,596 16 Crore+	16,86,44,586 16 Crore+	9,03,010 9 Lacs+	0.54%
6.	Kerala Congress (M)	5	3,49,75,600 3 Crore+	3,48,24,910 3 Crore+	1,50,690 1 Lacs+	0.43%
7.	NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)	2	4,38,96,631 4 Crore+	3,75,72,203 3 Crore+	63,24,428 63 Lacs+	16.83%
8.	Congress (Secular)	1	82,95,194 82 Lacs+	75,93,999 75 Lacs+	7,01,195 7 Lacs+	9.23%
9.	Revolutionary Marxist Party of India	1	59,99,400 59 Lacs+	96,80,507 96 Lacs+	-36,81,107	-38%
10.	BJP	1	27,10,826 27 Lacs+	16,02,366 16 Lacs+	11,08,460 11 Lacs+	69.18%
11.	Kerala Congress	1	2,92,34,183 2 Crore+	1,89,09,273 1 Crore+	1,03,24,910 1 Crore+	54.6%
12.	Indian National League	1	6,73,18,159 6 Crore+	4,38,34,892 4 Crore+	2,34,83,267 2 Crore+	53.57%
13.	Kerala Revolutionary Socialist Party (Leninist- Marxist)	1	27,69,629 27 Lacs+	11,28,000 11 Lacs+	16,41,629 16 Lacs+	145.53%
14.	Kerala Congress (B)	1	17,41,43,777 17 Crore+	19,72,25,525 19 Crore+	-2,30,81,748	-12%
15.	Kerala Congress (Jacob)	1	20,87,30,800 20 Crore+	18,72,89,677 18 Crore+	2,14,41,123 2 Crore+	11.45%
GRAND TOTAL		104	4,30,67,276.74 4 Crore+	3,56,30,855.41 3 Crore+	74,36,421.32 74 Lacs+	21%

Table: Average asset increases of re-contesting MLAs - party wise

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 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 Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 have fielded 50% to 100% candidates who are crorepatis and 42% to 100 % 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.