Thursday, April 16, 2009

Profiling our Lok Sabha Candidates for Phase 1 General Elections

The first phase of polling is underway as i pen this blog. A quick update on the candidates and their profiles as researched and published by http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp, www.nationalelectionwatch.org:

1. Total no. of Candidates with Criminal Records = 222 (i.e. 16% of 1425 candidates)

2. Most of the major political parties have fielded candidates with criminal records, with top four parties being INC (24), BJP(23), BSP(17) and SP(10)

3. Most states have candidates with criminal background contesting elections- Bihar is at the top with 51 candidates (or 26%)

4. There are 306 charges of heinous nature on the candidates which includes, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, etc.

5. 193 crorepatis are contesting the phase 1 Lok Sabha elections. Congress has the maximum number of crorepatis (45), followed by BJP (30) and BSP (22).Percentage of contesting crorepatis has increased from 9% in 2004 to 14% in 2009

6. 68% candidates have not furnished their PAN card details.

7. Number of women candidates is just 122(7%) as compared to 1593 of men(93%).

8. Amongst the major parties, the average asset per candidate for INC is Rs.4.3 Crore, BJP is 2 crores and NCP is 1.06 crores.

9. Only 60% of the contesting candidates have a Graduate + level of education.

I have a very prejudiced view of the treatment to be metted out to these candidates: Shoes instead of Votes