Of the 3,547 candidates who stood for election to the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha in Punjab between 2004 and 2019, as many as 11 percent had criminal cases against them and 6 percent faced serious criminal charges.
These are the findings of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Punjab Election Watch based on an analysis of the election affidavits filed by these candidates with the Election Commission.
ADR has been collecting candidate information and analyzing it since the 1999 PIL in the Supreme Court for transparency in elections and the 2003 judgement for filing of affidavits by. . .