After defeat, Cong leaders begin lobbying for legislature party post Candidates with serious criminal records fare well in Gujarat polls
: While the BJP is scrambling to choose its chief minister for Himachal Pradesh after the ignominious defeat of its CM face Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Congress is witnessing a race for the post of leader of opposition.
Rival camps headed by outgoing CM Virbhadra Singh and state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu have begun lobbying for the post of Congress legislature party (CLP) leader, even as the party plans to undertake an introspection exercise to ascertain the reasons for its rout.
The Congress had once again banked upon its old war horse — six-time CM Virbhadra. But marred by factionalism, the party was able to win only 21 seats while its vote share of 42.8% in 2012 elections fell to 41.7% this time. In 2012, the Congress had won 36 of the 68 seats in the assembly. Party leaders, particularly the veterans, who lost this time are covertly blaming Virbhadra for their defeat.
Kaul Singh Thakur says the internal bickering and Virbhadra’s backing to his one-time protégé Puran Thakur were responsible for his defeat.
Virbhadra’s son Vikramaditya Singh made his political debut, but has yet not opened his cards on the issue, while sources close to Virbhadra said that he preferably wants the slot for his loyalist and former industry minister Mukesh Agnihotri. Meanwhile, AICC national secretary and in-charge for Punjab affairs Asha Kumari , who has won from Dalhousie, is also a frontrunner for the post.
Sukhu, considered close to AICC chief Rahul Gandhi, is also keenly lobbying for the post. In case Sukhu prefers to continue to head the party unit, he could throw his weight behind other senior leaders. They could be Harshwardhan Chauhan, who won the Shillai seat for the sixth time, or Ram Lal Thakur, who won the Sri Naina Devi ji seat, defeating BJP’s young leader Randhir Sharma.
Rahul has directed AICC in-charge for party affairs in Himachal Sushilkumar Shinde and co-in-charge Ranjeet Ranjan to gather feedback from the party leaders to ascertain reasons for the defeat. “Our leaders will analyse threadbare the reasons for the party’s debacle. Party candidates from all the 68 assembly segments will participate in the meeting to be held on December 22,” state unit general secretary and media in-charge Naresh Chauhan said.
The winning candidates in the Gujarat assembly election were more than twice as likely to face at least one unresolved serious criminal case compared to candidates who lost the election, an analysis of poll returns and candidates’ public disclosures reveals.
Of the 182 winning candidates, 33 face at least one pending serious criminal charge. That’s about 18% of all incoming MLAs. Among the 1,634 candidates who lost, 113 of them, or about 7%, face such a charge. Gujaratis are not alone in their preference for candidates with criminal histories. Recent studies of both state and national elections have shown that candidates facing criminal cases tend to outperform political competitors with clean records.
“Voters... often have a rational incentive to back politicians with criminal reputations,” writes Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in his book When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics. “In places where the rule of law is weak and social divisions are rife, politicians can use their criminality as a signal of their ability to do whatever it takes to protect the interests of their community.”
The classification for serious criminal cases was created by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog. Serious criminal charges tend to involve violence and carry longer maximum prison sentences, although ADR also classifies political crimes such as corruption, election tampering and crimes against women as serious.
The cases are pending and have not led to convictions, but they are unlikely to be frivolous
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or politically motivated. Under the law, candidates are only required to disclose criminal cases of which a judge has taken cognizance, which means police have already filed a charge sheet and a prosecutor has already filed charges in a court. Twelve losing candidates were not included in the analysis because the HT could not access their criminal records.
In south Gujarat’s Dediapada, winning candidate Maheshbhai Chhotubhai Vasava, of the Bhartiya Tribal Party, faces a total of 24 criminal cases, the most of all candidates, according to the affidavit he filed with the Election Commission (EC) of India when he ran for election. Many of those cases are classified as serious, including two related to murder, two related to kidnapping, and five related to dacoity. Vasava, 50, is the son of long-time Gujarati legislator Amarsinh Chhotubhai Vasava, 70. Neither responded to requests for comment on younger Vasava’s criminal history. Vasava has not been convicted of any of these 24 cases, some of which stem from incidents which occurred as far back as 1989. But he was convicted in May, 2016, on charges related to rioting and unlawful assembly, a verdict which he has appealed against.
Neither of the two major national parties shied away from nominating candidates facing serious criminal charges. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won the state, nominated 182 candidates, of which 25, or about 14%, face serious criminal charges. The runner-up, the Congress, put forth 175 candidates, of which 38, or about 22%, faced charges of a serious nature.
In north Gujarat’s Patan, for instance, winning Congressman Kritkumar Chamanlal Patel faces 12 pending criminal charges, including one related to attempted murder. And in Dabhoi, winning BJP candidate Shailesh Kanaiyalal Mehta, also known as Shailesh Sotta, faces 11 cases, including two related to attempted murder. In his affidavit, Mehta describes himself as a partner in a real estate firm.
Both Patel, 48, and Sotta, 57, will be first-time MLAs in the Gujarat. Neither responded to requests for comment on their criminal histories.