17% of MCD councillors face criminal cases, says report

At least 17 per cent of the newly elected councillors in the MCD have declared criminal cases against them while another 8 per cent face “serious” cases, according to a Association for Democratic Reforms report.

In 2017, 10 per cent of the 266 councillors for whom data was available had declared criminal cases and another 5 per cent faced serious cases, the report said.

That year, 270 wards of the then three municipal corporations had gone to the polls. Following delimitation earlier this year, the number of wards in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) came down to 250.

The Association for Democratic Reforms and Delhi Election Watch analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 248 winning candidates in the MCD elections. Data on two winning candidates could not be analysed due to the unavailability of clear and complete affidavits with the State Election Commission, Delhi.

The report said three winning candidates declared cases of crimes against women such as assault or using criminal force with the intent to outrage her modesty (Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code) and related to husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code).

The report said 27 or 21 per cent of 132 AAP councillors analysed had criminal cases against them, followed by 12 winners or around 12 per cent of the BJP’s 104 winning candidates. Two of three Independent councillors and one of the Congress’ nine winning candidates have declared facing criminal cases in their affidavits.

Another 12 AAP councillors, six BJP councillors, and one Independent councillor have declared facing serious criminal cases, the report said.

The AAP ended the BJP’s 15-year stint in the MCD — trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations and unified this year — by winning 134 seats while restricting the BJP to 104 seats. The Congress won just nine seats while three wards went to Independent candidates.

Polling for the MCD was held on December 4 and the results were announced on Wednesday.

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