Despite SC order, candidates with criminal background get tickets

The recent Supreme Court (SC) judgment disqualifying convicted politicians has not deterred political parties in poll-bound Chhattisgarh to field candidates with criminal cases.

A study of the candidates in Chhattisgarh has revealed that 113 of the 983 candidates have criminal cases pending against them.

Of these, 66 candidates have serious cases against them, which includes murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crime against women. The study has been done by Association of Democratic Reforms.

According to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, any politician convicted for more than two years will be immediately disqualified of his membership of any house of Parliament or Assembly.

Among the political parties, 20% of the candidates fielded by the Opposition Congress have criminal cases against them. While, the ruling BJP has 15% of its candidates with criminal cases pending. In the last Chhattisgarh Assembly, 13% (11 out of 85) of the MLAs had criminal cases against them.

The study has found that around a quarter of the candidates are crorepatis, i.e, with assets over one crore.

The asset of candidates paints a contrasting image between the rich and the poor. While, around 170 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 2 lakh and another eight candidates have declared zero assets, the top-three candidates have stated assets worth few crores.

The highest assets were declared by Tribhuneshwar Sharan Singh Dev of Congress from Ambikapur constituency with assets worth Rs 560 crore, followed b Raja Surendra Bahadur Singh of Gondwana Ganatantra Party with assets of over Rs 46 crore.

Party name	%age of candidates with criminal cases
INC	20
BJP	15
Total	12
Source: ADR