In a report released by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in association with Uttarakhand Election Watch, the affidavits of 278 candidates out of 788 contesting the elections was analysed.

The better part of the election indicates that 181 candidates out of 278 analyzed, i.e., 65% are graduates or have higher educational qualifications.

The report also says that 53 out of these 788 analysed candidates are sittting MLAs. Interestingly, the asset of these MLAs has increased averagely by 106 percent within five years.

Apart from the sitting MLAs, the number of other crorepatis in the political parties has also increased over the period. A total of 88 candidates out of 278 analyzed (32%) are crorepatis. In the 2007 assembly elections, only 11% candidates were crorepati.

Among major parties, the average asset of a candidate for BJP is Rs 1.45 crores and for INC is Rs 1.46 crores, for BSP is Rs 1.19 crore and for UKD (P) is Rs 38.08 lakhs.

But the bad part comes in the form of 19 percent candidates having criminal cases pending against them. Out of the 53 candidates with pending criminal cases, 14 candidates have pending serious criminal cases like extortion, theft, bribery and attempt to murder.

Amongst major parties, every party has given tickets to candidates with pending criminal cases. INC has 16 out of 70 (i.e. 23%) candidates with pending criminal cases, BSP has 14 out of 70 (20%), BJP had 13 out of 70 (19%) and UKD(P) had 7 out of 44 (16%) candidates with pending criminal cases against them.

The worse part of the Uttarakhand assembly election is the position of women. Out of 788 candidates, only 62 candidates (i.e. 7.9 %) are women. The number of women candidates for BJP is 6 out of 70 candidates (9%), for INC it is 8 out of 70 candidates (11%), for BSP it is 3 out of 70 candidates (4%) and for UKD (P) it is only 3 out of 44 candidates (7%).