All political parties have ignored the Supreme Court’s instructions while selecting candidates for the assembly elections, opting for winnabilty over candidates with no criminal background, said the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday. Parties have given unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity while selecting the candidate, which indicates their indifference to electoral reforms, said ADR.

ADR has recommended that the SC reprimand political parties and politicians for their “complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection” while selecting candidates.

For the February 14 elections, some parties have as many as 46% candidates with criminal background.

“This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers,” ADR state coordinator Bhasker Assoldekar said.

ADR said that the remedy should be permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes and disqualification of candidates charged with serious criminal offences.

To ensure that candidates do not get caught in politically-motivated cases and are also prosecuted quickly, ADR has recommended that trial of cases in which the politicians are accused should be concluded in a time-bound manner.