8049 candidates from 677 political parties contested in the General election 2019. From 2009 to 2019, the number of political parties increased by 84%. So have the number of candidates with criminal records.

Association for Democratic Reforms analysed the affidavits of 7928 candidates. In the affidavits, 1500 candidates had declared having criminal cases filed against them. This is a 30% increase since 2009. The number of candidates with serious criminal cases have gone up by 76% since 2009.

With 242 cases, K.Surendran, a BJP candidate from Pattanamthitta in Kerala has the highest number of criminal cases filed against him