West Bengal Election 2021: 26% candidates in Phase 3 of WB polls have criminal records, 16% crorepati

West Bengal Election 2021: People wait in queue to cast their vote outside a polling station in Purulia district. (Representative image: Reuters)

West Bengal recorded a voter turnout of 86.11 percent in the second phase of polling held in 30 assembly constituencies, including Nandigram where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has contested against her former protege and now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari, on April 1.

After the conclusion of phase two of polling, the state is now ready to vote in the third phase of polling. Scheduled to be held on April 6, a total of 31 constituencies will go for voting in this phase. Senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, TMC minister Ashima Patra and former CPI(M) minister Kanti Ganguly are among the 205 candidates who are contesting in phase three of West Bengal Assembly election.

In this phase, elections will be held in parts of rural Howrah, the Sunderban region, the Diamond Harbour and Baruipur belts in the South 24 Parganas, and parts of the Hooghly district.

As these constituencies are ready to cast votes, take a look at contesting candidates based on their criminal cases, financial assets, educational qualifications, and gender representation, published by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

This analysis is based on the self-sworn affidavits of all 205 candidates.

Criminal cases

As many as 53 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. This means 26 percent of candidates have been charged with criminal cases. Of these, 19 are from Bharatiya Janata Party, 11 from Trinamool Congress, eight from Communist Party of India (Marxist), three from Congress and two from Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist).

Out of 53 candidates with criminal cases, 43 have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

There are nine candidates who have declared cases related to crime against women.

Red Alert Constituencies: Among 31 constituencies going to vote in the third phase of West Bengal Assembly polls, eight are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Crorepati candidates

Among the 205 candidates, 33 are crorepati, which means they have declared assets valued at more than Rs one crore. Of these, 17 candidates are from TMC, eight from BJP and one each from Congress, All India Forward Bloc and CPI(M).

The list of crorepati candidates includes BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, whose declared asset value is over six crore (6,69,31,590).

Education

A total of 98 candidates have an educational qualification equivalent to graduate or above. This amounts to 48 percent of the legislators.

As many as 102 candidates – 50 percent – have declared their qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass. There are two candidates who are diploma holders while one candidate is just literate and two candidates are illiterate.

Age

Among the 205 candidates in the fray, 67 have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years while 101 have declared to be between 41 and 60 years. There are 37 candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 and 80 years.

Gender representation

Of the 205 candidates contesting in 31 constituencies of West Bengal, currently ruled by a woman chief minister, only six percent are female. This means, 192 candidates are men while only 13 are women.