May 18, 2019 08:30 IST

59 constituencies across 7 states and one Union territory will go to polls in the seventh phase on May 19.

Photograph: PTI Photo

The last and the final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will take place on Sunday, May 19.

With this, the curtains will fall on the mammoth seven-phase democratic exercise to elect 543 members of the lower house of Parliament, the results for which will be declared on May 23.

A total of 59 seats spread across 7 states and one Union territory will be going to polls in the last phase.

According to data collected and analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms of 909 candidates on the basis of their self-sworn affidavits filed with the Election Commission, 170 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, with 127 candidates declaring serious criminal cases.

The BJP has fielded 43 candidates in the seventh phase out of which 18 have criminal cases registered against them.

14 of the 45 candidates from Congress have criminal cases registered against themselves.

6 out of 39 Bahujan Samaj Party candidates, 3 out of 14 Aam Aadmi Party candidates and 29 out of 313 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The BJP has fielded 15 candidates who have serious criminal cases registered against them.

10 from Congress, 4 from BSP, 1 from AAP and 24 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against them.

When it comes to riches, a total of 278 candidates have assets worth Rs 1 crore and more.

The Congress has fielded 40 whereas the BJP has fielded 36 crorepati candidates in the seventh phase.

11 from BSP, 9 from AAP and 59 independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The richest candidate in the fray for the seventh phase, is an Independent, Ramesh Kumar Sharma contesting from Pataliputra constituency in Bihar, who has self declared assets worth Rs 1107 crore/Rs 110.7 billion.

Ramesh Kumar Sharma is also the richest candidate fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, contesting from Firozpur in Punjab, has self declared assets of Rs 217 crore/Rs 2.17 billion.

His wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is contesting from Bathinda in Punjab, has self declared assets worth Rs 217 crore/Rs 2.17 billion.

There are 3 candidates in the seventh phase who have declared 0 assets.

Urmila, a candidate fighting on the Ambedkar National Congress ticket from Jalandhar in Punjab, has declared assets of Rs 295.

401 candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 5 and Class 12.

437 candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.

29 candidates have declared to be just literate, and 24 candidates are illiterate.

537 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 366 candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years.

3 candidates have not given their age.

3 candidates have declared their age to be above 80 years.

When it comes to gender, 96 female candidates are contesting the seventh phase.

Text: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com. Data: Association for Democratic Reforms.