New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS): A third of candidates of the Congress, the BJP and the BSP contesting in Madhya Pradesh have criminal cases filed against them, with 120 battling "serious criminal cases".

The Madhya Pradesh Election Watch (MPEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the sworn affidavits of candidates from the three major parties.

Of the 2,583 candidates, 686 are from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Out of these 686, 206 candidates (30 percent) have declared criminal cases against them.

Of these, 120 are battling "serious criminal cases" including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, criminal intimidation and crime against women.

Fifty (22 percent) candidates of the Congress, 37 (16 percent) of the BJP and 33 (15 percent) of BSP have declared serious criminal cases, the survey findings said.

Ninety-one of 228 (40 percent) candidates of the Congress face criminal cases while 61 out of 229 (27 percent) candidates of BJP and 54 out of 226 (24 percent) candidates of BSP have criminal cases slapped against them.

Two candidates have declared murder charges against themselves while seven declared attempt to murder charges.

Brajendra Singh of Congress (Prithvipur constituency) and Sukhlal Prasad of BSP (Nagod) have declared murder charges against themselves.

There are five candidates who accept they are battling kidnapping charges against them.