23% MLA aspirants have criminal cases: ADR

 Hyderabad: Three candidates contesting the November 30 Assembly elections have rape cases against them, as per their affidavits filed before the Election Commission. Seven candidates face murder charges, and 27 have attempted murder cases, said the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which analysed the affidavits of all the 2,290 contestants.

It said 521 (23 per cent) candidates have criminal cases, 353 (15 per cent) have serious criminal cases. The respective figures for 2018 were 368 (21 per cent) and 231 (13 per cent) out of 1,777 candidates.

Among the major parties, the ADR found that 60 (51 per cent) out of 118 Congress candidates, 54 (49 per cent) out of 111 BJP candidates, 34 (29 per cent) out of 119 BRS candidates had serious criminal cases.

They were joined by 28 (26 per cent) out of 107 BSP candidates, six (32 per cent) out of 19 CPM candidates, seven (17 per cent) out of 41 All India Forward Bloc candidates, and three (33 per cent) out of nine MIM candidates.

The ADR said there were 96 ‘Red Alert’ (81 per cent) constituencies out of the 119 in the state, where three or more contesting candidates had declared criminal cases, this is an increase from 78 Red Alert seats (66 per cent) in 2018.

The analysis also found that 580 (25 per cent) candidates in the fray are crorepatis, compared to 438 (25 per cent) in the 2018 elections.