Madhya Pradesh Election Watch (MPEW) is a citizens' initiative. It is a collective effort of 65 NGOs of Madhya Pradesh which came together with the objective of increasing voter awareness and operationalising their right to know their candidates. CHRI catalysed this process. The voters' right to know their candidate was the basis of the Supreme Court's historic judgement of March 2003. This judgement made it mandatory for all candidates to disclose their criminal background, if any, their assets and liabilities including money owed to government and public financial institutions and their educational background. The 2003 elections to the Assemblies of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram are the first major state wide elections since the March judgement.

Volunteers of MPEW fanned out to collect affidavits submitted by candidates at the time of filing nominations from the office of the Returning Officers. Collecting affidavits was a difficult task. Armed with proper credentials and letters from the CEC they asked for candidates' affidavits only to be told that there were no provisions for giving copies, they knew of no orders, there was no photocopier, there was no time or there was no necessity to give any information. Elsewhere, Returning Officers wanted assurances that public information in the affidavits would not be used for 'wrong purposes' whatever that may mean or asked for letters from the Election Commission to be issued directly to them by name before they would honour its instructions. Nevertheless, MPEW was able to secure more than half of the affidavits filed.

Information about the financial and educational background and criminal past (if any) contained in the affidavits were summarised and tabulated by a team of volunteers co-ordinated by CHRI in Delhi. Since the information has been taken from the sworn affidavits filed by candidates themselves and given the limited time, MPEW has not checked its accuracy. CHRI has in its keep all affidavits collected by volunteers of both Election Watches and will be happy to provide access to any person who is interested in reading them.

Mere information disclosure will not serve its full purpose unless the information reaches the voters and they make effective use of this information for making informed choices while voting. We hope the summarised information in the following tables will be of help to the voters. Only an informed and watchful electorate can keep criminals and corrupt elements away from our legislatures.

MPEW contact person: Mr. Rakesh Ranjan, Tel: 09826 326708, E-mail: sandhankatni@indiatimes.com

Candidates with Criminal Antecedents

Criminal Antecedents -
Partywise Pie Chart

Major Offences

List of Crorepatis and
Candidates with no assets

Candiates - Education Level