By his own admission, two murder cases, two attempted murders and three cases of theft are pending against him. Plus there is a case of criminal conspiracy, another of destruction of property by explosives, two cases of possession of illegal arms one case of culpable homicide.

Meet 44-year-old Mohammed Rofique, Trinamul Congress candidate from the Garbeta East assembly constituency, West Bengal.

Rofique is not the only friendly neighbourhood politician in the running for the first phase of the five-phase elections in West Bengal. Forty-one of the 174 candidates in the first-phase fray from the major political parties in the state - plus there are 53 independent candidates - have criminal cases pending against them. Serious cases - like rioting, kidnapping, extortion.

And they have admitted that in their affidavits filed along with their nomination forms.

Assembly Elections 2006: Complete Coverage

Out of the Trinamool's 39 candidates, 19 have cases pending against them. Seven of the 36 Congress candidates have questionable pasts, followed by the ruling Communist party of India-Marxist's score of 6 candidates with criminal cases pending against them (out of 35 of its candidates).

West Bengal Election Watch, a non-governmental organisation, has made these figures public.

"This (the phenomenon of criminalisation of politics) is nothing new (in West Bengal)," says Amiya Kumar Samanta, a former director general of the West Bengal police who is a member of West Bengal Election Watch.

"Earlier, we would suspect that the candidates have criminal pasts. In the age of right to information, we know for sure," he adds.

The WBEW has also disclosed that 24 candidates claim they have zero assets (not even a hut, or a motorcycle) in their name or their spouses' names.