PATNA, Oct. 29 -- Wealth and crime continue to define Bihar politics. As per the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch report, released on Tuesday, 423 candidates (32%) have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 354 candidates (27%) face serious criminal charges, including those related to violence, fraud, and corruption. There are 1,314 candidates in the fray for the first phase scheduled for November 6 and the ADR report is based on the analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 1,303 out of 1,314 candidates. The report also points to a high proportion of wealthy contestants, with 519 candidates (40%) identified as crorepatis. The average assets per candidate stand at Rs.3.26 crore, underscoring the growing financial clout in the electoral arena. As per the report, party wise, Jan Suraaj Party which has been vouching to field good candidates, has 49 (43%) out of 114 with serious criminal cases; BSP has 16 (18%) out of 89, RJD has 42 (60%) out of 70, ruling JD(U) has 15 (26%) out of 57, while the BJP has 27 (56%) out of 48 candidates facing serious criminal cases. Among the NDA's other prominent alliance partners, the LJP (RV) has 5 (38%) out of 13 candidates who have declared serious criminal cases against them. The RJD's alliance partner, Congress has 12 (52%) out of 23, CPI (ML) has 9 (64%) out of 14, CPI has 4 (80%) out of 5 and CPI (M) has 3 (100%) out of 3 candidates who have declared cases of serious sections against themselves. A serious criminal cases includes offence for which maximum punishment is of 5 years or more; If an offence is non-bailable; If it is an electoral offence (for eg. IPC 171E or bribery); Offence related to loss to exchequer; Offences that are assault, murder, kidnap, rape related; offences that are mentioned in Representation of the People Act (Section 8); offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and crimes against women and children. At least 33 candidates have declared cases of to murder (IPC Section-302, 303) and (BNS Section-103(1)) in the first phase, 86 candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) and (BNS Section-109) and 42 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women. Out of 42 candidates, 2 candidates have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376). The report points out that 91 (75%) of the 121 constituencies are Red Alert constituencies i.e., constituencies where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates, with wealth over crore. Among the major parties 81(71%) out of 114 candidates analysed from Jan Suraaj Party, 68(97%) out of 70 candidates analysed from RJD, 52(91%) out of 57 candidates analysed from JD(U), 44(92%) out of 48 candidates analysed from BJP, 27(30%) out of 89 candidates analysed from BSP, 18(78%) out of 23 candidates analysed from INC, 10(77%) out of 13 candidates analysed from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), 3(60%) out of 5 candidates analysed from CPI, 2(67%) out of 3 candidates analysed from CPI(M) and 2(14%) out of 14 candidates analysed from CPI(ML)(L) have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore. Nearly 40% of the candidates analysed, 519 (40%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 651(50%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 19 candidates are Diploma holders. 105 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 8 candidates are Illiterates. 1 candidate has not given his educational details in the affidavit....