The ADR has found that all political parties have violated the SC direction given last year that mandated political parties to widely publicise criminal antecedents of their candidates on the party’s websites and three times on different dates in local dailies.
According to SC judgment and EC directions, all candidates themselves and their parties should have publicised criminal cases against candidates fighting the first phase of elections between March 29 to April 9.The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) has found that all political parties have violated the Supreme Court direction given last year that mandated political parties to widely publicise criminal antecedents of their candidates on the party’s websites and three times on different dates in local dailies.
In its letter to the Election Commission, ADR said the information on pending criminal cases of only eight candidates out of 30 fielded for phase 1 of polling are listed on the Telangana state website of BJP.
No such information for other parties, including INC, BSP, CPI, CPI(M) and NCP, is available on their official websites.
According to SC judgment and EC directions, all candidates themselves and their parties should have publicised criminal cases against candidates fighting the first phase of elections between March 29 to April 9.
“It appears that political parties have not complied with the SC order and the ECI directions in the first phase of General Elections 2019. It is requested that action as deemed fit may kindly be taken,” ADR said in its letter to EC.
An analysis based on affidavits filed by these candidates, ADR found that 27% of the candidates from INC have serious criminal cases against them.
Other parties in the analysis were BJP (19%), BSP (13%), CPI (13%), CPI (38%) and NCP (33%) (see chart). Serious criminal cases include charges of murder, rape and kidnapping, among others.
