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Two hundred are millionaire and 54 are facing criminal cases out of the total 637 candidates are in fray in the Vidhan Sabha election 2017. In which five of them are facing murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302) charges. In hills where women are credited for playing a major role not only in the statehood movement but also in the current socio-economics, only 56 women comprising nine per cent of the total number of candidates, are contesting in the Uttarakhand assembly election 2017. These figures were produced by the Uttarakhand Election Watch (UEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) based on analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of all 637 candidates from 34 political parties, including six national parties, four state parties, 24 unrecognised parties and 261 independent candidates, who are contesting in the Uttarakhand assembly elections.
According to the analytical report, 200 or 31 per cent of 637 candidates analysed are crorepatis. Of the crorepati candidates, 52 are of the congress, 48 of the BJP, 19 of the BSP, 13 of the UKD, four of the SP and 53 independent candidates with declared assets worth more than Rs one crore. The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Uttarakhand Assembly Elections 2017 is Rs 1.57 crore. Of all the contesting candidates, BJP candidate from Chaubattakhal, Satpal Maharaj is the richest with total declared assets amounting to more than Rs 80 crore, followed by independent candidate from Srinagar, Mohan Prasad Kala with total assets worth more than Rs 75 crore and the BJP’s Jaspur candidate Shailendra Mohan Singhal in the third position with total assets amounting to more than Rs 35 crore.
When it comes to candidates with criminal cases against them, out of the 637 candidates analysed, 91 (14 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Similarly, 54 (8 per cent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves with five candidates having declared murder-related cases against themselves. Five candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC section 307) against themselves. Party-wise, the candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits include 19 out of 70 candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party, 17 out of 70 candidates of Indian National Congress,seven out of 69 candidates of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), four out of 55 candidates from Uttarakhand Kranti Dal ( UKD), two out of 20 candidates from Samajwadi Party (SP) and 32 out of 261 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Of the candidates with serious criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder, crime against women, kidnapping etc declared in their affidavits, the Congress has 12 such candidates, the BJP has 10, BSP has six, UKD has three and SP has two while 14 such candidates are independents. The 10 red alert constituencies with three or more candidates with declared criminal cases include Dharmpur with five such candidates, Raipur and Haridwar Rural each with four such candidates followed by three each of such candidates in Mussoorie, BHEL Ranipur, Rudrapur, Narendranagar, Jaspur, Gadarpur and Rishikesh.
