Press Release: Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022 Phase II: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

0 views

Skip to first unread message

ADR India

unread,

Nov 28, 2022, 1:31:45 AM11/28/22

to national...@googlegroups.com, national-el...@googlegroups.com

Press Release

28th November, 2022

Dear Friends,

The Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of All 833 candidates who are contesting in the Gujarat Assembly Elections Phase II in the following 93 constituencies.

The full reports in English, Hindi and Gujarati can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and-other-details-candidates-10

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 833 candidates analyzed, 163 (20%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections Phase II, out of 822 candidates analysed, 101(12%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 92(11%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections phase II, 64(8%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

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

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 29(32%) out of 90 candidates analysed from INC, 29(31%) out of 93 candidates analysed from AAP, 18 (19%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP and 4 (33%) out of 12 candidates analysed from Bhartiya Tribal Party have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage with Criminal Cases

Party	2017 Phase II			2022 Phase II
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
INC	88	25	28%	90	29	32%
BJP	86	22	26%	93	18	19%
AAP	7	2	29%	93	29	31%
BHARTIYA TRIBAL PARTY	2	0	0%	12	4	33%

Table: Party Wise Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2017 Phase II vs 2022 Phase II

Figure: Party Wise Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2017 Phase II vs 2022 Phase II

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 10(11%) out of 90 candidates analysed from INC, 17(18%) out of 93 candidates analysed from AAP, 14 (15%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP and 1 (8%) out of 12 candidates analysed from Bhartiya Tribal Party have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 9 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 9 candidates 1 candidate has declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 2 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 8 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 19(20%) out of 93 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 Phase II of the Gujarat Assembly Elections as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 20% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Gujarat phase II elections have given tickets to 19 % to 33 % 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 2022, 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 Gujarat assembly elections 2022 phase II is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	94	11%
2 crores to 5 crores	74	9%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	157	19%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	227	27%
less than 10 lakhs	281	34%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 833 candidates, 245(29%) are crorepatis. In 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections phase II, out of 822 candidates, 199 (24%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2017 Phase II vs 2022 Phase II

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 77(86%) out of 90 candidates analysed from INC, 75(81%) out of 93 candidates analysed from BJP and 35(38%) out of 93 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Party	2017 Phase II			2022 Phase II
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
INC	88	67	76%	90	77	86%
BJP	86	66	77%	93	75	81%
AAP	7	5	71%	93	35	38%
BHARTIYA TRIBAL PARTY	2	0	0%	12	0	0%

Table: Party Wise Crorepati Candidates: 2017 Phase II vs 2022 Phase II

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates: 2017 Phase II vs 2022 Phase II

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022 Phase II is Rs 4.25 Crores. In 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections Phase II, average assets per candidate for 822 candidates was Rs.2.39 crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 93 BJP candidates analysed is Rs. 19.58 Crores, 90 INC candidates analysed is Rs 7.61 Crores, 93 AAP candidates have average assets of Rs 5.28 Crore and 12 Bhartiya Tribal Party candidates have average assets worth Rs 19.69 Lakhs.

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

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Jayantibhai Somabhai Patel (J.S. Patel)	Gandhinagar	Mansa	BJP	1,47,03,74,800	5,14,25,06,700	6,61,28,81,500 661 Crore+	Y
2	Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput	Patan	Sidhpur	BJP	2,66,62,12,415	1,06,03,22,386	3,72,65,34,801 372 Crore+	Y
3	Ajitsinh Parsottamdas Thakor	Vadodara	Dabhoi	AAP	83,07,125	3,42,25,00,000	3,43,08,07,125 343 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: 5 candidates have declared zero assets in their self sworn affidavits. The details of these candidates are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Patni Mahendrabhai Somabhai	Gandhinagar	Gandhinagar North	IND	0	0	0	Y
2	Patel Satyamkumar K	Ahmedabad	Naroda	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party	0	0	0	Y
3	Satish Hiralal Soni	Ahmedabad	Amraiwadi	Apni Janta Party	0	0	0	Y
4	Parmar Kasturbhai Ranchhodbhai	Ahmedabad	Danilimda (SC)	Praja Vijay Paksh	0	0	0	N
5	Jiwanbhai Ramabhai Parmar	Ahmedabad	Sabarmati	Democratic Bharatiya Samaj Party	0	0	0	Y

Table: Zero assets candidates

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	Solanki Dipakbhai Mulajibhai	Ahmedabad	Sabarmati	BSP	6,000	0	6,000 6 Thou+	Y
2	Vasaikar Nilesh Jagannathbhai	Vadodara	Vadodara City (SC)	Satyawadi Rakshak Party	6,200	0	6,200 6 Thou+	Y
3	Manjulaben Ranchhodbhai Parmar	Ahmedabad	Bapunagar	IND	7,533	0	7,533 7 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with high liabilities: 431 (52%) 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	Jayantibhai Somabhai Patel (J.S. Patel)	Gandhinagar	Mansa	BJP	6,61,28,81,500 661 Crore+	2,33,85,56,900 233 Crore+	Y
2	Dharmendrasinh Ranubha Vaghela (Bapu)	Vadodara	Vaghodia	IND	1,11,98,39,741 111 Crore+	27,09,23,310 27 Crore+	Y
3	Ramanbhai D. Patel(Starline)	Mahesana	Vijapur	BJP	95,68,13,466 95 Crore+	20,41,22,820 20 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 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	Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput	BJP	Sidhpur	Patan	3,72,65,34,801 372 Crore+	Business, Farming & Rent Income	Business, Farming & Rent Income	2021-2022	4,94,12,700 4 Crore+	3,73,39,290 3 Crore+
2	Babubhai Jamnadas Patel	BJP	Daskroi	Ahmedabad	61,47,89,929 61 Crore+	MLA Salary	Agriculture & Rent	2021-2022	3,08,88,705 3 Crore+	2,90,38,930 2 Crore+
3	Patel Kiritkumar Keshavlal (K K Patel)	BJP	Unjha	Mahesana	44,70,20,795 44 Crore+	Business Income From Rent And Farming	Business & Farming	2021-2022	2,26,17,551 2 Crore+	1,78,87,807 1 Crore+

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

Undeclared PAN: A total of 37(4%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 505(61%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 264 (32%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 27 candidates are Diploma holders. 32 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 5 candidates are illiterate.

Age details of candidates: 284(34%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 430 (52%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 118(14%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 1 candidate has declared he is more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 69(8%) female candidates are contesting in the Gujarat assembly election 2022 Phase II. In 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections Phase II, 61(7%) out of 822 candidates analysed were women.

Party wise Gender Details

S.No.	Party Name	Total number of candidates analyzed	Men	Women	% of Women candidates
1	Independent	285	264	21	7%
2	BJP	93	85	8	9%
3	AAP	93	92	1	1%
4	INC	90	83	7	8%
5	BSP	44	39	5	11%
6	Garvi Gujarat Party	25	22	3	12%
7	Jan Sewa Driver Party	16	13	3	19%
8	All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen	7	5	2	29%
9	Rashtriya Samaj Paksha	5	4	1	20%
10	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party	4	2	2	50%
11	JD(S)	3	2	1	33%
12	SUCI(C)	2	0	2	100%
13	Others	166	153	13	8%
Total		833	764	69	8%

Table: Party wise Gender Details

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 Gujarat phase II elections have fielded 38% to 86% candidates who are crorepatis and 19% to 33 % 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.