The BJP has fielded the highest number of candidates with criminal cases against them for the November 13 by-elections to six assembly seats in West Bengal. Four of the candidates have serious criminal cases against them.

While two Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates are facing serious criminal cases, only one Congress candidate figures in this list of seven names.

A report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-profit organization working on electoral and political reforms, was published on November 11 after analyzing 41 of the 42 electoral candidates.

According to a BJP source, while the higher percentage of candidates with criminal records fielded by the party “gives them a bad name”, it is largely a testament to “what BJP workers in Bengal face”.

As a counterargument, it may be mentioned that 191 of the 440 candidates the BJP had fielded in the Lok Sabha polls this year had declared criminal cases against them. This is a staggering 43 per cent of the total candidates from the saffron camp.

“While a clean chit cannot be given to any of these politicians, it is true that opposition leaders and workers have faced persecution in Bengal. It has always been the trend, even during the Left government,” says poll analyst Biswajit Bhattacharya.

“Under the TMC government, this happened with the opposition CPI(M) till 2019. With the sudden expansion of the BJP in the state, they are now at the receiving end of this deal,” he claims.

The report says that TMC’s Sanat Day, the bypoll candidate from Naihati, is the richest among all the contestants. He has declared assets worth around Rs 5 crore. In fact, the TMC has fielded the richest candidates. The average assets of its six candidates top the list at Rs 1.3 crore. The Congress comes second with nearly Rs 1 crore average assets of its nominees, while BJP candidates have assets worth Rs 84 lakh on average, the report said.

Individually, Dey is followed by Ananya Roy Chakraborty, the BJP’s Bankura candidate, with nearly Rs 3 crore in assets; next is Congress’s Paschim Medinipur candidate Shyamal Kumar Ghosh (about 2 crore). Interestingly, Debajyoti Mazumder, the Left Front-backed CPI (ML) (L) candidate for Naihati and one of Dey’s rivals, owns assets worth Rs 1.69 crore.

Kashikanta Barman, Kamtapur People’s Party (United) candidate for Sitai seat; Rafikul Islam, independent candidate for the Haroa seat; and Rupak Mitra, independent candidate for the Naihati seat, have total assets of Rs 5,000, Rs 9,200 and Rs 16,775 respectively, and are listed in the report as the poorest candidates.

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