New Delhi: According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-governmental organization working in the field of electoral reforms, political parties have made any nomination for the selection of 212 candidates with criminal backgrounds to contest the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab. Reason not given. The ADR has said that instead of giving reasons in many cases, political parties have justified their move.
ADR analyzed Format C7 of 1,178 candidates who contested assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab earlier this year. The political parties concerned have not provided any reason for the selection of 212 candidates with criminal backgrounds.
In Uttar Pradesh, political parties have cited reasons for selecting 689 (83 percent) out of 827 candidates with criminal cases and 511 (82 percent) out of 623 candidates with serious criminal cases. The political parties concerned have not given any reason for the selection of 138 candidates (17 percent) with criminal backgrounds.
In Uttarakhand, reasons were provided for the selection of 64 (84 percent) out of 76 candidates with a criminal background and 37 (86 percent) out of 43 candidates with serious criminal cases. Along with this, the political parties concerned have not given any reason for the selection of 12 (16 percent) candidates with criminal backgrounds in Uttarakhand. In Goa, 29 (51 percent) candidates with criminal antecedents have not been cited by the parties concerned for the selection.
The political parties concerned have not given reasons for selecting two (five percent) candidates with criminal backgrounds in Manipur. Reasons were provided for the selection of 146 (82) percent of the 177 candidates with criminal cases in Punjab and 104 (87 percent) out of 120 candidates with serious criminal cases. Also, 31 (18 percent) with criminal backgrounds in Punjab The political parties concerned did not give any reason for selecting the candidates.
In the column titled ‘Why candidates with no criminal background were not selected’, it has been found in the report that instead of giving a clear answer to the question in most of the cases, it was justified why these candidates were selected. . For some candidates, the parties mentioned that they were most likely to win the election.
Read the Full report here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-format-c7-publication-reasons-given-selection-candidates-criminal-cases-political-2
