NEW DELHI: The analysis of affidavits of candidates contesting the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls this year showed that major political parties have relied more on women candidates this year.
As per a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), all the major political parties including the BJP, Congress and the AAP have fielded more women candidates than men this year in the upcoming December 4 MCD polls.
The ADR report said that 693 (52 percent) female candidates are contesting in the MCD election. In 2017 MCD Elections, 1,127 (49 percent) out of 2,315 candidates were women.
The report showed that a total of 136 out of 249 candidates fielded by the BJP are women.
Similarly, AAP has fielded 136 woman candidates and Congress has fielded 132 female candidates.
The report on Saturday also disclosed that over 50 percent of the candidates are educated only till 12th standard.
The ADR report said that 752 (56 percent) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 487 (36 percent) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.
There are 12 candidates who are diploma holders.
As per the report, 22 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate, 60 candidates are illiterate and three candidates have not submitted their educational qualification.
Similarly, analysis of the age-profile of the contesting candidates showed that 510 (38 percent) candidates have declared their age to be between 21 to 40 years while 741 (55 percent) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years.
There are 73 (5 percent) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 12 candidates have not declared their age, said the report.