Gujarat polls: Candidates have to declare criminal cases with EC, experts welcome move

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Published : Oct 1, 2022, 3:44 PM IST

Etv Bharat

The move comes after the recent directions by the Supreme Court to the EC to declare the crimes of the politicians so that the voters get to know their representatives. Political expert Dilip Gohil told ETV Bharat while appreciating the move saying the main benefit will be that the people will get information about the crimes registered against the MLA of that area.

Gandhinagar: Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly Election scheduled by year-end, the Election Commission of India has made a new provision mandating candidates with criminal records to declare the cases before the election commission in a bid to bring transparency to the election process. The move comes after the recent directions by the Supreme Court to the EC to declare the crimes of the politicians so that the voters get to know their representatives.

The Central Election Commission recently visited Gujarat for two days and met all political parties, collectors, and police officials. The Election Commission clearly said that in the Gujarat Assembly Election 2022, the candidates will have to declare his/her crime at least three times on the KYC application. Also, political parties have to announce that they have nominated a candidate with a criminal record for a particular assembly seat.

According to the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) report, in the assembly election of 2012, out of 1666 candidates who had filed nominations, 287 candidates had declared to have a criminal case against them, and 126 candidates said that they had a serious criminal case, which is 8 percent of the total number of candidates who contested the election.

In 2012 political parties-wise, out of a total of 181 BJP candidates, 49 candidates disclosed details of criminal cases, and 25 candidates were booked for serious offenses, which comes to 14 percent of the total candidates. As far as the Congress is concerned, 57 candidates out of the total 176 candidates had declared criminal cases and 22 candidates had serious criminal cases, which is 13 percent of the total candidates.

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As for the 2017 assembly elections, a total of 1826 candidates contested the elections, out of which 1815 candidates were analyzed. A total of 253 candidates declared criminal cases and 154 candidates declared serious offenses, again 8 percent of the total candidates. In the 2017 assembly election, out of 181 BJP candidates, 46 candidates declared crime cases and 26 candidates had serious crime cases registered, which is 14 percent.

Of the 176 Congress candidates, 56 candidates had crime cases, as mentioned in the nomination papers, and 38 candidates had serious criminal cases, which is 22 percent. More serious criminal cases were registered against Congress candidates than BJP candidates. In the 2017 assembly elections, out of a total of 28 candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party, 4 candidates declared criminal cases and 2 candidates declared serious criminal cases.

Similarly, out of 57 candidates of NCP, 9 candidates had crime cases. Serious offenses were registered against 6 candidates. Analyzing the results of the 2012 assembly elections, out of 182 MLAs, 57 (31 percent) MLAs had criminal records and 24 (13 percent) MLAs had serious crime cases. Out of 182 MLAs, 47 (26 percent) elected MLAs had crime cases registered, and 33 (18 percent) MLAs had serious crime cases.

In the 2012 assembly elections, party-wise, of the total of 115 BJP MLAs, 32 MLAs had criminal cases, and 14 MLAs had serious criminal cases. Of the 61 Congress MLAs, 20 MLAs had crime cases and 7 serious crimes had been registered against them. If we look at the results of the 2017 elections, of the 99 MLAs elected by BJP, 18 MLAs had criminal cases and 12 had serious criminal cases registered against them.

As far as the Congress party is concerned, out of the 77 elected MLAs, 25 MLAs had crime cases registered against them and 17 serious criminal cases were registered against them. ADR Gujarat Coordinator Pankti Jog while talking to ETV Bharat said that cases of rape and murder are ongoing against 6 MLAs in the current Gujarat assembly.

The Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission that the MLA of each area has to declare the cases pending against him/her so that people can identify their candidate. The past cases will have to be advertised three times in the newspaper.

Political expert Dilip Gohil told ETV Bharat while appreciating the move saying the main benefit will be that the people will get information about the crimes registered against the MLA of that area.

“Now it will also be interesting to see how the political parties respond to a candidate with a criminal case,” he said. Senior journalist and political analyst Haresh Jhala, while talking to ETV Bharat over the telephone, said that for a long time, people have been hoping from the Election Commission that those who have criminal cases or cases of any particularly serious offense should be barred from contesting elections.

“Because the process of the case takes a long time due to which the Election Commission has taken this decision,” he said. “The political party also has to declare why it felt the need to select such a candidate by which people will also know what kind of candidate they are voting for and what kind of people they are making victorious”.

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