As many as 283 candidates in the electoral fray in Tamil Nadu have declared criminal cases against themselves, showed an analysis of self-sworn affidavits of 997 of the 1,107 candidates by Tamil Nadu Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

A total of 3,776 candidates are in the fray in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections to be held on May 16.

Out of the 997 candidates analysed, 283 (28 percent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.  As many as 157 (16 percent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, theft, crimes against women etc, said an ADR note.

Five candidates have declared charges related to murder, whilec 30 candidates have declared charges related to attempt to murder.  Eight candidates have declared cases related to Crimes against Women.

Party wise candidates with criminal cases: 10 (27%) out of 37 candidates from INC, 26 (15%) out of 176 candidates from BJP, 47 (22%) out of 217 candidates from AIADMK, 68 (40%) out of 170 candidates fielded by DMK, 66 (31%) out of 211 candidates from PMK, 41 (42%) out of 98 from DMDK and 8 (47%) out of 17 CPI(M) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise candidates with serious criminal cases: 8 (22%) out of 37 candidates from INC, 15 (9%) out of 176 candidates from BJP, 26 (12%) out of 217 candidates from AIADMK, 41 (24%) out of 170 candidates fielded by DMK, 36 (17%) out of 211 candidates from PMK, 18 (18%) out of 98 from DMDK and 3 (18%) out of 17 CPI(M) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.