Bihar Elections: 'Clean'

candidates achieve only 4%8% success.

If the past two elections are any indication, candidates for the forthcoming
Bihar Election 2015 are likely to have a string of heinous cases against
them in court: murder, extortion, kidnapping, robbery and dacoity and
crimes against women, including rape.
All political partiesthere are no exceptionspick candidates with serious
criminal charges. Why they do that is revealed by an India Spend analysis
of self-declared affidavits: Only 8% of candidates without criminal cases
against them won in 2005. In 2010, only 4% did. While the success rate of
tainted candidates in both 2005 and 2010 was 23% and 12% respectively.
While 274 (14%) of 2,029 candidates with heinous charges were given
tickets in 2005, the figure rose to 600 (20%) of 3,058 candidates in 2010. In
2005, these 274 candidates had in total 499 murder charges, 81 extortion
cases and 102 kidnapping charges. In 2010, the 600 candidates with heinous
cases had charges that included 919 murder charges, 207 extortion cases
and 151 kidnapping charges.

Fielding candidates with criminal cases is not a new practice among Indian
political parties, but during the 2010 elections, 66 constituencies in Bihar had
more than four candidates with heinous cases against them contesting the
Bihar elections 2015. There were 20 constituencies where six and more
candidates contested the elections with heinous cases pending against
them.
Janata Dal (United) leads the pack, but all parties guilty
In 2010, 34% of JD (U) candidates, 33% of LJP, 26% of BJP and 18% of
Congress candidates told the Election Commission of India that they had
cases involving crimes of a heinous nature pending against them.
Source: Self-sworn affidavits submitted by contesting candidates to ECI,
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer 1, 2. View raw data here. Note: Heinous cases
are those involving offences related to murder, extortion, kidnapping,
robbery and dacoity, and crimes against women & children, including rape. If
convicted for these offences, the punishment ranges from 7 years to life
imprisonment or the death sentence.
While the issue of criminalisation in politics comes up during every election,
what makes the issue more serious in the context of Bihar is the nature of
crimes that the candidates have been facing.

In 2005, the BJP gave tickets to 26 candidates who declared 35 charges of

murder, 16 of extortion, 7 of kidnapping, and five counts of robbery and
dacoity.
Source: Self-sworn affidavits submitted by contesting candidates to ECI,
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer 1, 2. View raw data here.
It became worse in 2010.
As many as 43 candidates of the JD(U), the party headed by Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar, had 79 charges of murder, 20 of extortion, 11 of kidnapping,
while 42 Congress candidates had 61 murder-related offences. The BJP gave
tickets to 25 candidates who declared 47 murder charges, 12 extortion, 13
kidnapping and 2 cases of rape.
Source: Self-sworn affidavits submitted by contesting candidates to ECI,
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer 1, 2. View raw data here.
Parties clearly choose candidates with the most serious charges
Of 2,029 candidates who contested the 2005 Bihar elections, 1,539
candidates were clean; they declared they did not have any criminal cases
against them.

Of the remaining 490, in addition to 274 candidates facing heinous cases,

113 were facing very serious cases, 36 candidates were facing cases
where, if convicted, the maximum punishment would range between two to
five years and 67 candidates were facing cases with a maximum punishment
of less than two years.
These figures point to the fact that the degree of taint also matters for
political parties.
Of the candidates facing criminal cases, 56% (274 of 490) faced heinous
cases and 23% (113 of 490) faced very serious charges.

Parties chose candidates facing grievous charges (for which the maximum
punishment if convicted is more 5 years and can be up to life imprisonment
or death sentence) than the ones that had lesser punishments, if convicted.
Similarly, during the 2010 Bihar elections, of the 1,207 candidates with
pending criminal cases, 50% (600 of 1,207) had heinous cases and another
28% (340 of 1,207) had very serious cases pending against them.
So, parties prefer to give tickets to candidates who have heinous and very
serious charges pending against them.
Only 8% of clean candidates won in 2005; 4% in 2010
Its clear why parties chose candidates with criminal records.
Of the 1,539 clean candidates who contested the 2005 assembly elections
in Bihar, only 126 (8%) were elected; 22% of candidates with heinous
cases won61 of 274.
Of 113 candidates facing very serious charges (including rioting, cheating
and forgery), 23 (20%) made it to the assembly. This means candidates with
heinous and very serious charges had around three times better chances
of winning elections in Bihar than clean candidates.
The success rate of clean candidates worsened during the 2010 elections
no more than 4% (82 of 1,851) won.
The success rate for candidates facing heinous charges was 11% and for
candidates with very serious cases 12%, again three times better chances
of victory than candidates with no criminal records.
Source: Self-sworn affidavits submitted by contesting candidates to ECI,
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer 1, 2. View raw data here.
Article Source: Business Standard