This time in the West Bengal Assembly elections, there are 129 ‘red alert’ constituencies – seats where three or more candidates have declared criminal cases – a 17 per cent increase over the 2021 state elections, according to the ADR report.
The NGO League for Democratic Reforms, which analyzed 2,920 candidates in the 2026 General Assembly elections, said that just under a quarter of the candidates, 683 (23 percent), contesting have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 589 (20 percent) have declared serious criminal cases.
In the 2021 state assembly polls, out of 2,130 candidates analysed, 528 (25 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 431 (20 percent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
According to the report, the BJP has the highest number of candidates — 208 (71 per cent) out of the 293 candidates analysed — who have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Congress has 76 (26%) out of 293, TMC 112 (39%) out of 290 and CPI(M) 94 (47%) out of 198 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
They are followed by the All India Forward Bloc, 8 (35 per cent) out of 23 candidates, and the CPI, 3 (18 per cent) out of 17 candidates.
Among the major parties, 188 (64 percent) of 293 candidates analyzed are from BJP, 63 (22 percent) of 293 candidates analyzed are from Congress, 90 (31 percent) of 290 candidates analyzed are from TMC, 78 (39 percent) of 198 candidates analyzed are from CPI(M), and 5 (22 percent) of 23 candidates analyzed are from All India Forward Bloc and 2 (12 percent) out of 17 candidates analyzed by CPI declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
The report said that 192 candidates declared cases related to crimes against women, and eight of them declared cases related to rape and a person committing repeated rape of the same woman.
While 35 candidates announced murder cases, 185 candidates announced attempted murder cases.
The report added that 129 (44%) out of 294 electoral districts are red alert districts. In the latest Assembly polls, there were 78 (27%) of these constituencies.
The report added that 129 (44 percent) out of 294 electoral districts are red alert districts. Red alert constituencies are those where three or more competing candidates have announced criminal cases against them. In the recent Assembly polls, there were 78 (27 per cent) of these constituencies.
Of the 2,920 candidates analysed, 629 (22 percent) are candidates, compared to 18 percent in the latest council polls.
Among the major parties, 209 (72 percent) of 290 candidates analyzed are from TMC, 143 (49 percent) of 293 candidates analyzed are from BJP, 86 (29 percent) of 293 candidates analyzed from Congress, 57 (29 percent) of 198 candidates analyzed from CPI(M), and 4 (17 percent) of 23 candidates analyzed from All India Forward Bloc and 4 (24 percent) out of 17 candidates analyzed by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) declared their assets to be worth more than $1 Crore.
The average assets per candidate contesting in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections is $Rs 1.27 crore. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the average assets per candidate of 2,130 candidates was Rs. 91.69 lakhs.
Among the major parties, the average assets per candidate of the 293 BJP candidates analysed is Rs. 2.91 Crores, 293 Congress candidates analysed $1.56 Crores, 290 TMC candidates have average assets of $5.39 Crores, 198 CPI(M) candidates have average assets of $1.07 Crores, 23 candidates from the Indian Forward Bloc have average assets of $79.48 lakh 17 CPI candidates have average assets of Rs. 78.44 thousand.
There are four candidates who have declared zero assets – Independent candidate Mousumi Ghosh (Bhalla Paschim), Welfare Party’s Sahagadi Parveen (Uluberiya Purba), Aam Janata Unnayan’s Asif Hussain (Howrah Madhya) and ISK Habib (Uluberiya Dakshin).
There are only 385 women candidates (13 per cent) contesting in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, 240 (11 per cent) of the 2,130 candidates analyzed were women.
She added that 1,354 candidates (46 percent) declared that their educational qualifications ranged between the fifth and twelfth level, while 1,419 candidates (49 percent) declared that they had a university qualification or higher, 49 candidates held a diploma, 68 candidates declared that they were merely educated, and 30 candidates were illiterate.
There are 854 (29 percent) candidates who declared their ages to be between 25 and 40 years, while 1,567 (54 percent) candidates declared their ages to be between 41 and 60 years. There are 495 (17 percent) candidates who declared their ages to be between 61 and 80 years, and four candidates who declared their ages to be over 80 years.
