Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

• Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 3559 candidates analyzed, 466 (13%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

• Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 207 (6%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

• Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,136(76%) out of 178 candidates analysed from DMK, 46(24%) out of 191 candidates analysed from AIADMK, 18(30%) out of 60 candidates analysed from DMDK, 15 (75%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BJP, 15 (71%) out of 21 candidates analysed from INC, 10 (44%) out of 23 candidates analysed from Pattali Makkal Katchi, 3 (60%) out of 5 candidates analysed from CPI(M), 2 (50%) out of 4 candidates analysed from CPI and 1(20%) out of 5 candidates analysed from NCP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

• Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases:  Among the major parties, 50(28%) out of 178 candidates analysed from DMK, 18(9%) out of 191 candidates analysed from AIADMK, 8(13%) out of 60 candidates analysed from DMDK, 8(40%) out of 20 candidates analysed from BJP, 6(29%) out of 21 candidates analysed from INC and 5(22%) out of 23 candidates analysed from Pattali Makkal Katchi have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

• Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 8 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 8 candidates, 1 candidate has declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376).

• Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 7 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

• Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 39 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

• Red Alert Constituencies*: 74(32%) out of 234 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 

• The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2021 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 13% of candidates with criminal cases.  All major parties contesting in Tamil Nadu elections have given tickets ranging from 20% to 76% of candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Supreme Court in its directions 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. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent Bihar Assembly elections held in October 2020 it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like the popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers. 

Financial Background

• Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2021 is as follows:

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates 

• Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 3559 candidates analyzed, 652 (18%) are crorepatis.

• Party wise Crorepati Candidates: Among the major parties 19(91%) out of 21 candidates analyzed from INC, 155(87%) out of 178 candidates analyzed from DMK, 164(86%) out of 191 candidates analyzed from AIADMK, 15(75%) out of 20 candidates analyzed from BJP, 14(61%) out of 23 candidates analyzed from Pattali Makkal Katchi, 19(32%) out of 60 candidates analyzed from DMDK and 1 (25%) out of 4 candidates from CPI have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

• Average assets: The average of assets per candidate analyzed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2021 is Rs 1.72 Crore. 

• Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 21 INC candidates analyzed is Rs. 15.64 Crores, 178 DMK candidates analyzed is Rs 10.61 Crores, 191 AIADMK candidates have average assets of Rs 9.91 Crores, 20 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 8.78 Crores, 23 Pattali Makkal Katchi candidates have average assets of Rs 3.52 Crores, 60 DMDK candidates have average assets of Rs 3.08 Crores, 4 CPI candidates have average assets of Rs 1.03 Crore and 5 CPI(M) candidates have average assets worth Rs 21.91 Lacs.

• High asset candidates: The details of the top 3 candidates with the highest declared assets, contesting in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2021 are given below:

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets 

•  Zero assets candidates: There are 23 candidates who have declared zero assets.

• Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with the lowest assets (excluding zero assets candidates) are as follows:

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets 

• Candidates with high liabilities: 1567(44%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of the top three candidates with the highest liabilities are given below:

 Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

•  Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

Table: Top 3 candidates with the highest income as declared in ITR 

• Undeclared PAN:  A total of 430(12%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

• Education details of candidates: 1731(49%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^th standard while 1443(41%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 193 candidates are Diploma holders. 106 candidates are Illiterate and 61 candidates are just literate. 25 candidates have not given their educational qualifications.

•  Age details of candidates: 1451(41%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 1756(49%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 348(10%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 3 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old. 1 Independent candidate namely Raghupathy P from Vikravandi constituency has declared his age 24 years in the affidavit.

• Gender details of candidates: 380(11%) female candidates are contesting in the Tamil Nadu assembly election 2021.
  

Recommendations of ADR

• To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society, and citizens. The Supreme Court of India is the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection, and absence of required laws.

• Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping, etc.

• Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offenses punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.

• Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.

• Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.

• De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly puts up a candidate with a tainted background.

• Political parties should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.

• Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).

• Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time-bound manner.

• Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.