Chhattisgarh Aseembly election 2023 |
At least 100 out of 953 candidates contesting the second phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections have criminal cases against their names, with 56 facing serious offences of voluntarily causing hurt, cheating and criminal intimidation.
As per a report by the Chhattisgarh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released on Friday, out of 953 candidates analysed, 100 (10%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
A total of 958 candidates will contest the second phase of the Chhattisgarh elections, but the report has not analysed five candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the Election Commission of India’s website.
The elections for 20 out of the total 90 Assembly seats in the state were held on November 7, while the remaining 70 constituencies will go to polls in the second phase on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3.
Among the major parties, 13 (19%) candidates from the Congress, 12 from the BJP, 11 from the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 12 (27%) from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits, the report said.
In the ruling Congress, seven (10%) of its 70 candidates have serious criminal cases against their names, while the figure is four (6%) out of 70 for the opposition BJP, four out of 62 for the JCC (J) and six of 44, or 14%, for AAP.
Sixteen (23%) out of 70 constituencies going to polls in the second phase will see three or more candidates with declared criminal cases, the report said.
These are Korba, Lormi, Jaijaipur, Raipur Rural, Mahasamund, Beltara, Patan, Katghora, Akaltara, Durg City, Dharsiwa, Kasdol, Bhatapara, Manendragarh, Jashpur and Bemetara.
As per the report, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel (Patan), Jaisingh Agrawal (Korba), Devendra Yadav (Bhilai Nagar), Vikas Upadhyay (Raipur City West), Atal Shrivastav (Kota) of the Congress have declared criminal cases, while in the BJP, former ministers Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West), Dayaldas Baghel (Navagarh), Saurabh Singh (Akaltara) and OP Choudhary (Raigarh) have criminal cases.
Among others, Amit Jogi (Patan) from the JCC (J) has declared criminal cases, it said.
The first phase of the polls saw 26 out of the 223 candidates with criminal cases, with 16 of them facing serious offences.
