New Delhi: As many as 22% of winning candidates or 40 out of the total 182 in the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly elections have criminal cases against their names, according to an analysis conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja is among the top three candidates who have shown high income as per their ITR declarations.
Out of the 40 winning candidates with criminal cases lodged against them, 16% or 29 candidates have serious criminal cases pending against their names.
Three victorious candidates have cases of attempt to murder registered against their names under IPC Section 307, according to ADR’s analysis.
Four winning candidates have cases related to crimes against women registered against them. One among these has a rape case registered against him under IPC Section 376.
Out of the total 40 winning candidates with criminal cases against them, 26 belong to the BJP, nine from the Congress and two from the AAP. Two independents and one candidate of the Samajwadi Party are also on the list.
As per ADR’s analysis, 83% or 151 out of the 182 winning candidates are billionaires.
Of these, 132 belong to the BJP, 14 from Congress, three Independents and one each from AAP and the SP.
These candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore each, the ADR report said.
The average of assets per winning candidate in the Gujarat Assembly polls was Rs 16.41 crore.
The average assets per winning candidate for 156 BJP winning candidates was Rs 17.15 crore, for 17 Congress winning candidates it was Rs 5.51 crore, and for the five victorious AAP candidates, it was Rs 98.70 lakh.
The lone victorious SP candidate’s assets were worth Rs 20.94 crore and that of the three Independents’ were worth Rs 63.94 crore.
BJP’s victorious candidate from Vyara, Mohanbhai Kokani had the lowest assets worth Rs 18,56,590 as per his affidavit.
BJP’s winning candidate from Mansa, J.S. Patel was among the richest candidates with assets worth Rs 661 crore and liabilities worth Rs 233 crore.
BJP’s Balvantsinh Rajput declared an income of Rs 372 crore and topped the list of three candidates with the highest income as per their ITR declarations.
The other two BJP candidates in this list were Manek Pabubha with a declared income of Rs 115 crore and cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja with a declared income of Rs 97 crore.
