Altogether 91 of the 237 candidates in the fray in 42 Assembly seats in Bihar going to polls in the fourth phase on November one have criminal backgrounds and all major parties had given tickets to those who had criminal cases pending against them.
The 91 candidates, who comprise 38 per cent of the candidates in the fourth phase, have declared in their nominations that criminal charges were pending against them, Convenor of Bihar branch of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), Anjesh Kumar said.
Forty-nine candidates had declared that criminal charges like murder and attempt to murder were pending against them, he said.
The RJD topped the list of parties providing nomination to 62 per cent of the candidates with criminal backgrounds, followed by BJP (53 per cent), Congress (41 per cent), LJP (40 per cent), JD(U) (38 per cent) and BSP (37 per cent), Kumar said.
A total of 47 out of 73 candidates contesting on BJP tickets have criminal backgrounds, while 54 of the 102 candidates nominated by its ally JD(U) have criminal antecedents in the first four phases of the poll, he said.
The number of candidates with assets of over Rs 1 crore have increased to 147 in the first four phases of polls this time from 36 in 2005 Assembly elections, he added.