With Gujarat just 10 days shy of first-phase polling in assembly elections, the stage is set for voters to choose from a variety of candidates in fray — and a wide variety it sure seems. With merely 29 percent candidates being graduates, and 22  percent in all having criminal records, the voters have a lot on their plate to pick and choose from.

The NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Gujarat Election Watch (GEW) have come up with a report giving details of criminal cases pending against the candidates in fray, along with their total assets and liabilities. Affidavits of 482 candidates of the total 846 contestants on December 13 were analysed as part of the report.
We cull out some of the highlights:

Criminal background

• * 104 out of 482 candidates analysed (22%) have declared criminal cases against them.
• 46 have serious criminal cases — murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion etc. Keshubhai Patel’s new Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) leads the race with 11, BJP has 9, Congress 8, JD (U) 6, NCP 2 and BSP has one candidate with such cases against them.
• Vasava Chhotubhai Amarsinh of JD(U), contesting from Jhagadia(ST) constituency, has declared three charges of murder and one charge related to attempt to murder. Fellow JD(U) contestant Maheshbhai Chhotubhai Vasava from Dediapada (ST) constituency has declared two charges related to murder and one attempt to murder, while Altaf Gafurbhai Patel of the same party (contesting from Vagra constituency) has declared one murder charge.
• Almost every major party has given tickets to candidates with criminal records. While Congress is in the forefront with 27 out of 83 (33%) candidates with criminal records, the BJP is a close second with 22 out of 87 (25%), BSP 7 of 78 (9%), JD(U) 7 of 29 (24 %), SP 5 of 19 (26%), NCP 2 of 3 (67 %)  and GPP has 21 out of 83 (25%) of its candidates with declared criminal cases against them.

Candidate with cases under Prevention of Corruption Act: Barad Jashabhai Bhanabhai of the Congress, in fray from Somnath constituency.

Assets & liabilities

• Of 482 candidates analysed for the first phase, 147 (or 30%) candidates are “crorepatis”.
• Maximum asset: Rajguru Indranil Sanjaybhai of Congress from Rajkot-East constituency, who has declared assets worth Rs 122 crore, followed by fellow Congressman Chavada Javaharbhai Pethalajibhai (Manavadar constituency) with Rs 82 crore and BSP’s Rajabhai Parbatbhai Parmar (Somnath) with Rs 40 crore.
• Only 39 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 1 lakh.
• Minimum asset: Mineshbhai Maganbhai Patel of GPP (Valsad constituency), has declared that he has zero assets, followed by Bismilla Abdulkhan Pathan (Independent) from Rajkot South constituency with assets worth only Rs 1,000.
• 47 of 482 candidates analysed have declared liabilities of Rs 50 lakh or above.
• Biggest liabilities: Rajguru Indranil Sanjaybhai (Cong) from Rajkot East has declared Rs 27.14 crore in liabilities, followed by Jitendrabhai Kantilal Somani of BJP (Wankaner constituency) with liabilities of Rs 17.69 crore and Kamabhai Gagjibhai Rathod of BJP (Sanand constituency) with Rs 12.45 crore.
• Average asset per candidate: Rs 6.40 crore for Congress, Rs 4.48 crore for BJP, Rs 1.07 crore for GPP, Rs 75.39 lakh for BSP, Rs 22.61 lakh for JD(U), Rs 19.54 lakh for SP, and Rs 10.43 crore for NCP.
• Educational qualification
  
• 139 (29%) candidates are graduates or have higher educational qualification.

Whither women?

• Only 27 (6%) women candidates in fray. If that’s horrendous, what’s even more so is it’s worse than 2007 when 46 out of 553 (8%) candidates were women.

Candidates re-contesting

• Number of MLAs re-contesting analysed for first phase is 85.
• Average asset of these MLAs as declared in 2007 was Rs 1.42 crore, which is up to Rs 4.24 crore this year. This means the average percentage growth in assets for these MLAs is 266.
• Chavada Javaharbhai Pethaljibhai of Congress from Manavadar constituency has the highest increase in asset worth Rs 64.57 crore (Rs 18.32 cr in 2007 to Rs 82.90 crore in 2012), followed by Parshottambhai Odhavjibhai Solanki of BJP from Bhavnagar Rural with an asset increase of Rs 26.23 crore (Rs 11.38 cr to Rs 37.61 cr) and Kamalabhai Gagjibhai Rathod of BJP from Sanad constituency with an asset increase of Rs 22.90 crore (Rs 1.55 cr to Rs 24.46 cr).