PHASE 3 BIHAR: 13 CANDIDATES FACE CRIMINAL CASES, 12 SERIOUS ONES

Of a total of 54 candidates in the fray in five Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the third phase in Bihar, 13 candidates face criminal cases and of them, 12 serious charges, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Araria, Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Madhepura and Khagaria are going to vote on May 7 in third of the seven phases of parliamentary polls being held across the country.

The lone Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate, Suman Kumar Mahaseth, is the wealthiest, with assets worth ₹21.44 crore. He is in the fray from Jhanjharpur.

In the last Bihar assembly elections in 2020, VIP had fielded Suman Mahaseth from Madhubani seat, but he lost to RJD’s Samir Kumar Mahaseth. Suman was earlier with the BJP and remained the party’s MLC for a full term of six years, representing Madhubani local authority constituency.

The VIP, which is part of the RJD-led alliance in Bihar, has been given three Lok Sabha seats in Bihar – Gopalganj, Jhanjharpur and East Champaran — by Lalu Yadav’s party, which initially was to contest on 26 seats.

The poorest candidate is Bambam Kumar, who is in the fray from Supaul as an Independent candidate. According to his election affidavit, he only has ₹15,000 in cash with him. At 26, he is also the youngest candidate.

Of the 54 candidates, 20 have assets worth more than ₹1 crore. The average worth of assets per candidate in the Bihar in the fray in phase 3 is Rs. 2.79 crore.

An analysis of criminal, financial, educational and other details of candidates by the Association for Democratic Reforms on the basis their self-sworn affidavits shows that 13 (24%) of the 54 candidates face criminal cases, 12 of them with serious charges.

A serious criminal offence, according to ADR, includes “offence for which maximum punishment is of five years or more; if an offence is non-bailable; if it is an electoral offence (for eg. IPC 171E or bribery); offence related to loss to exchequer; offences that are assault, murder, kidnap, rape related; offences that are mentioned in Representation of the People Act (Section 8); offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and crimes against women.”

As far as educational qualifications are concerned, 19 candidates have studied between Class 5 and 12, while 30 are graduates or above. “One candidate is a diploma holder and four have declared themselves to be just literate,” says the ADR report.

The report says that 19 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 23 have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 12 candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

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2024-04-29T15:16:08Z dg43tfdfdgfd