Bihar and bahubalis have electoral and political connotation for long and it stands true even in the upcoming lok Sabha polls as 26 per cent of the candidates contesting the polls in first phase have criminal records. Several of convicted bahubalis have pitted their wives instead of them in the fray.
According to an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch (BEW) report, 21 out of 80 candidates contesting the Parliamentary polls in first phase have pending criminal cases against them.“Twelve out of these 21 have serious criminal charges against them including cases related to attempt to murder, crime against women and theft,” said the report.Bihar goes to first phase poll on April 10.
The report also revealed that as per the affidavits, Pradeep Kumar Joshi of Rashtra Sewa Dal from Karakat lok Sabha constituency has the maximum 17 cases against him followed by Kaushal Yadav of JD(U) from Nawada constituency.
Interestingly, three (75per cent) out of four BJP candidates, three (50 per cent) out of six JD(U) candidates and two (33 per cent) out of six AAP candidates contesting the first phase poll have serious criminal cases pending against them.
Four candidates — Pradeep Joshi from Karakat, Raja Ram from Karakat, Kaushal Yadav from Nawada and Niranjan Kumar of CPI(Ml) from Gaya constituency — have criminal cases related to attempt to murder pending against them, said the report.
Significantly, former IAS officer and JD(U) candidate from Sasaram reserved constituency KP Ramaiah too have case related to crime against woman pending in the court. In his affidavit, though, he submitted that a case related to assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty (Section 354 IPC) was filed against him.
“Pradeep Joshi from Karakat has, significantly, declared that a case related to causing miscarriage without the woman’s consent was also pending against him,” said Rajiv Kumar, spokesperson of Bihar Election Watch (BEW). He also added that Karakat, Aurangabad and Nawada have at least three candidates from various political parties who have declared that criminal cases are pending against them.
Besides, some of the dreaded names of Bihar like Mohammad Shahabuddin, Surajbhan Singh, Munna Shukla, Pappu Yadav, Anand Mohan Singh and Ranbir Yadav have fielded their wives from one party or another to contest the poll in their place. Among them, Shahabuddin, Anand Mohan Singh and Munna Shukla are currently languishing in jail for long.
The report, however, has some other interesting facts like 25 candidates (31per cent) in the first phase fray are crorepatis. The two from Congress and all four from the BJP and RJD have declared assets worth more than Rs1 crore. Two (33 per cent) out of six candidates from the AAP and four (67per cent) out of six contestants from JD(U) are crorepatis.
“The average asset per candidate of the first phase is Rs2.56 crore, while eight candidates have assets worth more than Rs5 crore,” said the BEW spokesperson.JD(U) candidate from Jehanabad Anil Sharma with assets of Rs805 crore tops the list as the richest candidate in all six phases of the lok Sabha poll in Bihar. Sharma is owner of the Amrapali group of companies.
However, among the major parties, the average assets for two Congress candidates are Rs34.10 crores, for four BJP candidates Rs5.59 crores, for six JD(U) candidates Rs4.29 crore; while the average assets of six AAP candidates are Rs70.21 lakhs and of six BSP candidates Rs29.23 lakhs.
Upendra Ravidas contesting from Jamui reserved seat on JMM ticket has Rs42 crore, Meira Kumar contesting from Sasaram reserved constituency on Congress ticket has Rs38 crore, while Nikhil Kumar, another Congress candidate from Aurangabad has Rs29 crore. The first two richest candidates, ironically, are the dalit candidates.
