BJP has most `criminal’ candidates at civic polls- Panvel, Bhiwandi, Malegaon

Maximum candidates with serious criminal cases will be contesting on BJP tickets for local body elections in Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur and Malegaon.Of the 190 candidates that BJP has fielded, 27 have serious criminal cases, according to an analysis of affidavits carried out by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Maharashtra Election Watch. The criminal cases include murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, criminal intimidation, rape, robbery , forgery and cheating.BJP is followed by Congress, which has 25 candidates with serious criminal cases while NCP has 14, Shiv Sena 13, Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksh 12 and MNS six.

A press release issued by ADR said it has analysed selfsworn affidavits of 1,223 candidates out of the 1,250 nominees who are contesting for 252 seats in 64 multiple member wards in three municipal corporations elections. The remaining affidavits could not be analysed as they were not available on the election commission website, it said.

According to the analysis, 195 of the 1,223 candidates have declared criminal cases and 141have serious criminal cases against them.

In terms of assets, four candidates have declared zero assets, 263 have assets below Rs 3 lakh while Paresh Ram Thakur of the BJP who is contesting in the Panvel municipal corporation election has declared the highest assets at Rs 95 crore. Kishor Kashinath Mhatre of the Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Pakshi who is also contesting elections in Panvel has declared the highest liability of Rs 12 crore.

Nearly 45% or 544 of the 1,223 candidates are women while 55% or 678 are men.