Bhubaneswar : 23 per cent of the candidates contesting in the phase-8 of the West Bengal election have declared criminal cases against them, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
While the state is going to the 8th phase of polling on 29th October, ADR has unveiled an analytical report on the Criminal, Financial and Social backgrounds of the candidates contesting in the phase.
As per the report 64 (23 per cent) out of 283 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 50 or 18 per cent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. As per ADR classification serious criminal cases are those offences for which maximum punishment is upto 5 years or more or non-bailable, offences related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnap and rape related.
Among the major parties, 7(70%) out of 10 candidates analysed from CPI(M), 11(31%) out of 35 candidates analysed from AITC, 21 (60%) out of 35 candidates analysed from BJP and 10 (53%) out of 19 candidates analysed from INC have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
