Now, EC asks political parties to justify tainted candidates
It directed parties to justify candidature on basis of merit and not ‘mere winnability’.
nNEWDELHI:THE Election Commission has asked political parties to justify why they choose candidates with criminal history to contest elections.
In a letter dated March 6, ahead of the filing of nominations for elections to the 55 Rajya Sabha seats on March 26, the Commission sent out the notification to the president/general secretary/ chairperson/convener of all recognized national and statelevel political parties.
The EC’S order follows a Supreme Court order of February 13, wherein the apex court made it mandatory for all political parties to make public why they chose candidates with criminal history to contest an election. It further directed political parties to justify the candidature on the basis of merit and not “mere winnability”.
“Some national level parties have already begun the process,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity. “Whether it has been done across all states is something we will have to wait and see. Partly, such a declaration was already being done since 2018. We have now stipulated the additional requirements as directed by the Supreme Court.”
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told Hindustan Times that such a move will help political parties in deciding on their candidates in a better manner and make the electoral processes more robust.
“Any reform in the electoral processthatbringstransparency and makes information easily available for the voter is a welcome reform,” he said. “It is unfortunate that the honourable Supreme Courts has to do this. All political parties should work together to make electoral processes more robust. Also, if we look at the data, mostly it is BJP {Bharatiya Janata Party} that fields people with criminal antecedents.”
The 17th Lok Sabha formed last year had 43% of its members facing criminal charges, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). BJP topped the list with 116 out of its 303 newly elected members having criminal charges against them followed by Congress with 29 out of 52, ADR said in a report last year.
According to BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli, the move will strengthen the electoral democratic process in enabling voters to make a choice keeping all factors in mind. Responding to allegations that BJP fields most such candidates, Kohli asserted that the BJP always followed the law.
“We must recognize that basic jurisprudence states a person is innocent unless held guilty. There also has to be a distinction between genuine criminal acts and an FIR {first information report} that has been lodged during the conduct of political events. Mere registration of an FIR is too early a stage to debar anybody,” he said.
“The provision is now more stringent in two ways, one the party has to justify why they have chosen such a candidate and two, if they fail to do so, they will be held in contempt of court,” former Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said . “It will be a tough job as I do not think EC has enough manpower to monitor every candidate. Take the general elections for example, there were 8,000 candidates. We will have to wait and see how this pans out.”
The Supreme Court last month, noted that political parties offer “no explanation as to why candidates with pending criminal cases are selected as candidates” in the first place.
“We therefore issue the following directions in exercise of our constitutional powers under Articles 129 and 142 of the Constitution of India: (1) It shall be mandatory for political parties (at the Central and State election level) to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases (including the nature of the offences, and relevant particulars such as whether charges have been framed, the concerned Court, the case number etc.) who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates,” the court had said.
The information has to be uploaded on the party’s website and social media handles (Twitter and Facebook) and in one local and one regional language newspaper. The apex court also ordered the parties to submit a report of compliance with the EC within 72 hours of the selection of the candidate.
“If a political party fails to submit such compliances report with the Election Commission, the Election Commission shall bring such non-compliance by the political party concerned to the notice of the Supreme Court as being in contempt of this Court’s orders/ directions,” the court said.
The Commission has directed the parties, in accordance with the court’s order, to publish the information in “within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate or not less than two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever is earlier”.