Election Commission: 1,157 candidates have criminal history

* Data given by EC after the last phase of polling

* 3,733 candidates

* 371 Women

New Delhi, November 8

As many as 1,157 of the total 3,733 candidates with criminal antecedents contested the Bihar Assembly polls, according to data collated by the Election Commission.

The data given by the commission on Saturday after the last phase of polling stated that 371 women were in the fray in the three-phased elections. Following a Supreme Court direction in February this year, the poll panel had in March asked parties to justify why they chose candidates with criminal history.

The Assembly elections in Bihar were the first full-fledged poll, where such details of candidates were made public by parties. In September, the EC had made the norms of publicity of criminal antecedents of candidates stringent by putting a timeline on when such advertisements should be published and broadcast during electioneering.

In October 2018, the commission had issued directions making it compulsory for candidates and the parties to advertise their criminal antecedents. — TNS