The percentage of candidates contesting the Rajasthan Assembly elections who have criminal cases against them is higher this time than it was in 2013, a report by the non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms said on Monday. Elections for 200 Assembly seats in the state will take place on December 7, and the results declared on December 11.

Association for Democratic Reforms, in its report published on Monday, said it had analysed the election affidavits of 2,188 out of 2,294 candidates contesting the Rajasthan polls. Of these, 320 candidates (14.6%) have declared that there are criminal cases against them. As many as 195 (8.9%) have declared that they face “serious criminal cases”.

Compared to this, in 2013, out of 2,030 candidates the NGO analysed, 224 (11%) of the candidates had declared criminal cases, and 140 (6.9%) had serious criminal cases against them.

In 2018, four candidates have declared cases related to murder. As many as 25 have been charged with attempt to murder, 11 in cases related to kidnapping, and 16 with crimes against women.

The Congress has the highest number of candidates with criminal cases – 43 out of 193. The Bharatiya Janata Party has 33 candidates out of 198 against whom criminal cases have been filed. As many as 31 out of 178 candidates from the Bahujan Samaj Party and 26 out of 141 candidates from the Aam Aadmi Party also have criminal cases against them.

Of the 43 Congress candidates with criminal cases, 27 have serious charges against them. 21 out of the 33 BJP candidates have been accused of serious offences. The corresponding numbers for the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Aam Aadmi Party are 20 and 16.

As many as 48 (24%) of the 200 constituencies in Rajasthan have three or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

As many as 179 of the 2,188 candidates analysed have declared the value of their assets to be over Rs 5 crore. 212 candidates have assets worth Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore, 447 candidates between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, 600 candidates between Rs 10 lakh and 50 lakh, and 750 candidates have declared assets lower than Rs 10 lakh.