BJP has highest number of MPs and MLAs with cases of crimes against women: Study

A study released on Wednesday by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the most number of MPs/MLAs with cases of crimes against women.
The party has also been giving more tickets to these candidates as compared to others. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) also gave tickets to candidates with such criminal cases pending against them.
ADR analysed 4,845 out of 4,896 election affidavits of current MPs and MLAs to arrive at these startling figures. These include 768 of 776 affidavits of MPs and 4,077 out of 4,120 MLAs from all states.
The study says that of 1,580 (33 per cent) MPs/MLAs analysed with declared criminal cases, 48 have declared cases related to crimes against women.
Among various recognized parties, BJP has the highest number of such MPs/ MLAs, 12, followed by Shiv Sena with 7 and AITC with 6.
Of these 48 MPs/MLAs with declared cases related to Crimes against women, 45 are MLAs and 3 are MPs.
Maharashtra has the highest number with 12 MPs/ MLAs that have declared cases of crimes against women, followed by West Bengal with 11 and Odisha and Andhra Pradesh each with 5.
The study shows that 327 candidates who have such cases pending against them were given tickets by recognised political parties.
Among the major parties in the last 5 years, 47 candidates with declared cases of crimes against women were given tickets by the BJP.
The second highest number of candidates, 35, were given tickets by BSP followed by 24 candidates from Indian National Congress (INC) who had contested Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state Assembly elections.
Even leaders who have heinous crime charges against them were preferred for tickets. The study says that in the last 5 years, recognized parties have given tickets to 26 candidates who had declared cases related to rape.
Head of ADR, Major General Anil Verma (retd) told India Today TV that the winning stroke of a candidate seems to be the sole criteria for political parties and they don’t care about credentials of these candidates.
“(What’s) surprising (is) the manner in which parties led by women leaders have also given tickets to candidates with cases of crime against women,” he said.