New Delhi : As many as 1,038 of the total 3,450 candidates contesting the Bihar assembly elections have criminal background.
According to a study, this forms 30 percent of the total candidates from 158 political parties and independents.
In 2010, 91 parties fielded 3,058 candidates out of which 986 had criminal charges against them, said Bihar Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
In the party-wise list of candidates with criminal cases, the BJP tops with 95 of 157 fielded by it.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has 61 of the total 101 candidates followed by the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) with 58 of its total 101 candidates, the study said.
Fifty-eight candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women.
Eight of these 58 have declared cases of rape in their affidavits, the report said.
According to the report, 259 of the total 1,150 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Others include cases related to robbery, dacoity and kidnapping.
Of the total 243 constituencies, 196 have have three or more candidates with criminal cases.