Twenty-one out of the 88 candidates (24%) in the fray in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal have criminal cases against them, as per their affidavits filed before the Election Commission of India.
The fifth phase, scheduled for May 20, will witness the highest percentage of candidates with declared criminal cases among the five rounds of polling in the State, according to a report by civil society organisation Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
On May 20, election will be held in seven Lok Sabha constituencies – Howrah, Hooghly, Arambagh, Serampore, Bongaon, Barrackpore, and Uluberia – spread across three districts in south Bengal.
“Unfortunately, akin to the 2019 polls, the 2024 elections are not free of money and muscle power,” said Ujjaini Halim, the State coordinator of the West Bengal Election Watch, an initiative supported by the ADR to analyse candidate data for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.
According to the report by the ADR, 71% of the candidates with criminal background have been fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — the highest in the State – in the fifth phase. It is followed by the CPI(M), with 60 per cent of candidates with declared criminal cases.
The BJP’s Arjun Singh, who is contesting from Barrackpore, faces the highest number of declared criminal cases in West Bengal across the five polling phases. He is facing 93 cases, a press statement by ADR said. Mr. Singh won the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat on BJP ticket in 2019, but later defected to the Trinamool Congress. After the Trinamool denied him ticket from Barrackpore this time, he returned to the BJP.
Union Minister Santanu Thakur, the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Bongaon constituency, faces 23 criminal cases.
Spike in assets
Both the BJP candidates also recorded some of the highest spikes in declared assets among the 19 sitting MPs and one dismissed MP contesting again this year in West Bengal, according to Dr. Halim. The third highest asset growth has been recorded by Kalyan Banerjee from the Trinamool, who is contesting from Serampore on May 20.
Mr. Thakur recorded a whopping 535% increase in assets in the last five years. In 2019, Mr. Thakur’s total declared assets amounted to over ₹52 lakh, which increased to more than ₹3 crore in 2024. Mr. Singh has recorded a 241 % increase in assets since the last Lok Sabha election, while Mr. Banerjee has recorded a 74% increase.
More women contestants
Dr. Halim has also highlighted the increase in the number of female candidates in the State over the five phases. “The number of women candidates in West Bengal, both in terms of percentage and absolute numbers, has increased substantially over the five phases of the Lok Sabha election,” he said.
In the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election, the State witnessed 16 (21%) contesting female candidates, a significant increase from four in the first phase. Fourteen (16%) female candidates are set to contest in the State in the fifth phase.
According to ADR reports, 9.27% of the candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election across the country, in phases one to five, are women. In comparison, 13.15 per cent of candidates in West Bengal’s Lok Sabha constituencies are women.
“One reason behind the increase in the number of women candidates is that there are more semi-urban constituencies in phases four and five,” Dr. Halim said.
Eight constituencies voted in the fourth phase in West Bengal on May 13. Key women candidates in the fourth round include Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra and BJP nominee Amrita Roy in Krishnanagar, Birbhum’s Trinamool MP Satabdi Roy, and CPI(M)’s Jahanara Khan, who is up against Trinamool’s Shatrughan Sinha and BJP’s S.S. Ahluwalia in Asansol.
Key women contestants in the fifth phase on May 20 are the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee and the Trinamool’s Rachna Banerjee, both from Hooghly, and the CPI(M)‘s Dipsita Dhar from Serampore.
Published - May 13, 2024 11:39 pm IST
