Chandigarh: Out of 1276 candidates who have entered the fray for the Punjab Assembly elections, 25 percent have declared criminal cases against them. This information has been given in a report prepared by ‘Punjab Election Watch’.
The Punjab Election Watch (PEW), an affiliate of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), analyzed the election affidavits of 1,276 candidates out of a total of 1,304 candidates in the February 20 election. PEW said it could not analyze the affidavits of 28 candidates because they were not scanned properly or the complete details were not uploaded on the website of the Election Commission.
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The report said that as far as the educational qualification of the candidates is concerned, more than half of them have studied till 12th standard. Jaskirat Singh, state convener of PEW released this report. According to the report, the candidates contesting assembly elections have an average assets of Rs 4.31 crore and in 2017 this figure was 3.49 crore.
Kulwant Singh, the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate from Mohali, has declared assets worth Rs 238 crore. It is followed by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and Congress leader Karan Kaur Brar who have assets of Rs 202 and Rs 155 crore respectively. Brar is in the fray from Muktsar. The report said that out of 1276 candidates, 315 have declared criminal cases against themselves which is 25 per cent. (agency)