Contains information on the election results for and criminal charges against all candidates contesting elections to the lower house of the Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, in the 2004 and 2009 elections. These were the first national elections conducted after the 2002 Supreme Court ruling mandating that all candidates running for public office file affidavits with the Election Commission of India prior to the election. In these affidavits, candidates report their criminal histories or pending criminal charges. Only charges for offenses punishable by 2 or more years of imprisonment, which were lodged more than 6 months before the candidate filed for candidacy, must be reported. Affidavits were compiled and digitized by the Liberty Institute of India, a New Delhi-based non-government organization, and posted on its website. The investigators compiled election results from the Election Commission of India and criminal status data from the affidavits. The unit of analysis is the individual candidate, and the dataset includes each candidate's name, party affiliation, election year, geographic area (state and parliamentary constituency), election results (votes received, win/loss, and rank among candidates), and whether or not charges were filed against the candidate.
