Lok Sabha election 2024: Analysis of Candidates contesting in phase 2 polling

Analysis of Lok Sabha Phase 2 candidates reveals criminal cases, assets, and gender distribution among major parties.

For the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls, there are a total of 1,198 candidates contesting across all constituencies. Data sourced from Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and MyNeta.info details the total assets, gender, declared criminal cases, and the party affiliation from self-sworn affidavits of 1,192 candidates that are contesting across 87 constituencies in 12 States/UTs.

The six candidates not analysed are the following:

Out of the 1,192 candidates analysed, 250 or around 20% of the candidates have declared criminal cases against them in their self-sworn affidavits; 167 of which have serious criminal cases declared against them. The overview of the criminal backgrounds of the contesting candidates is in the table below.

Among the major national and state parties, barring Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), all the parties over 40% of candidates with criminal cases, as shown in the bar chart below. Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have 51% and 45% of their candidates with criminal cases, respectively. Out of the 74 candidates fielded by BSP during Phase 2, six (or roughly 8%) are with criminal cases.

The map below shows the percentage of candidates with criminal cases in each of the constituencies going on poll during April 26. Among the top five constituencies with the largest share of candidates with criminal cases, each of them are from Kerala. These constituencies are: Idukki (57%), Wayanad (55%), Ernakulam (55%), Pathanamthitta (50%), and Malappuram (50%).

Among the candidates analysed of 12 States/UTs going on poll on April 26, Kerala has the highest share of candidates with criminal cases (35%), followed by Bihar and Maharashtra (at 24% each), and West Bengal (23%). The state-wise share of candidates with and without criminal cases is shown in the bar chart below.

According to ADR, the Supreme Court in its directions dated dated 13th February, 2020 had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. Over 40% of the candidates of all major parties contesting during Phase 2 have criminal cases against them.