According to the private election watchdog, the parties instead of answering why it can't field a candidate without criminal antecedents, give justification as to why the candidate in question has been selected.

New Delhi: Political parties have failed to adhere to a Supreme Court directive to publicise reasons for choosing candidates with criminal cases in 191 of the 1,405 instances during the Assembly elections to West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry earlier this year, according to a private election watchdog.

Among the candidates in these five states that went to polls in April-May this year, the report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that parties publicised the reasons for fielding 1,214 candidates out of 1,405 candidates with criminal cases while not providing its reasoning in public domain for choosing 191 nominees.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed candidates and parties to publish details of the criminal cases of candidates and the reasons for choosing them in newspapers as well as on parties' websites and its social media accounts within 72 hours of the selection of such candidates. The Election Commission has provided a Format C7 for this purpose.

In the Format C7, the ADR said, the parties instead of giving cogent answers to why it cannot field a candidate without criminal antecedents, give justification as to why the candidate in question has been selected.

In some cases, it said the parties repeat the exact same reasons for all candidates.

According to the analysis, BJP did not publish such details of eight out of 302 candidates with criminal cases while the number for Congress was 13 out of 202 in these five states. In contrast, Trinamool Congress had published such details of all 116 -- 113 in West Bengal and three in Assam.

Vijay-led TVK did not publish such details of 29 out of 103 candidates in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry while it was 22 out of 78 for DMK. CPI(M) did not put such details of 12 out of 150 candidates with criminal cases in public domain, the ADR statistics showed.

In West Bengal, 559 (out of 1,516 fielded by nine parties) candidates had declared criminal cases and of this, reasons have been furnished for 504 (90%) candidates while parties have not shown any reason for choosing 55. Trinamool Congress also provided reasons for choosing one candidate even though there were no pending cases against him.

Fourteen parties fielded 473 (out of 1,162) candidates with criminal records in Tamil Nadu and reasons were not published for 72 candidates while in Kerala, reasons were furnished for 241 out of 278 candidates fielded by parties, leaving 37 without providing any reasons.

In Assam, out of 66 candidates with criminal cases, reasons have been furnished for 56. Puducherry saw parties not providing any reasons for fielding 27 of 39 candidates with criminal cases against them.