The Hindu : National : `26 candidates in Gujarat have criminal cases against them'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004

National

National

`26 candidates in Gujarat have criminal cases against them'

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, APRIL 12 . The Congress has surpassed the Bharatiya Janata Party in fielding candidates with a `criminal background' in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat.

Out of the total of 26 candidates contesting the elections with pending criminal cases, eight have been fielded by the Congress, five by the ruling BJP and the remaining 13 belong to other small or insignificant parties or are independents.

The Gujarat Election Watch floated by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), claims that of the 162 candidates in the fray for the 26 seats in the State, 13 had declared assets of more than Rs.1 crore and 20 others of more than Rs. 50 lakhs.

As many as 28 of the 33 with "high assets" belong to the two main political rivals — 15 from the BJP and 13 from the Congress.

Among the 13 "crorepati'' candidates are the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, (Rs. 1.29 crores) and the Minister of State for Home, Harin Pathak, (Rs. 1.02 crores). Three other Union Ministers from the State have assets over Rs. 50 lakhs, it claimed.

The organisation claimed that the details collected the affidavits filed by the candidates with the Returning Officers along with their nomination papers reveal that 86 of the 162 candidates, including three from the BJP and eight from the Congress, did not have the necessary Permanent Account Number (PAN) for the purpose of Income Tax. Four candidates of the Congress have declared assets of more than Rs. 50 lakhs or Rs. 1 crore.

On the other side, none of the 11 who declared "nil assets" belonged to the two major parties. On the "liabilities" of Rs. 5 lakhs or more, eight of the 18 are from the BJP and five from the Congress, it said.

The 15-member Election Watch, comprising eminent citizens such as the former Chief Justices of the Gujarat, Himachal, Calcutta and Bombay High Courts, retired Directors-General of police and prominent academicians and others, felt concerned over the increase in the percentage of candidates with criminal background compared to the December, 2002 State Assembly elections.

The Watch co-ordinator, Jagdeep Chhokar, said in the Assembly elections, 138 of the 1,000 candidates had a criminal background, constituting 14 per cent.

This time round the percentage had gone up to 16.

Causing more concern was the fact that the major political parties expected to try to cleanse public life were actually contributing more to the criminalisation of politics.

The ADR whose public interest litigation in the Supreme Court brought out the historic judgment making it obligatory for the candidates to file affidavits of their background for the knowledge of the voters, found it more difficult to obtain the copy of the affidavits this time than in the Assembly elections, Prof. Chhokar said.

The offices of the Returning Officers were reluctant to part with the copies and gave various excuses till the Election Commission issued fresh orders on April 1, he said.

In many cases, the affidavits displayed on the websites were incomplete eliminating vital details.

Suggesting amendments to the Act to make misinformation in affidavits a criminal offence, the former Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, B. J. Diwan, said that voters should also question the candidates with "high assets" about their sources of income and the period and other relevant details which could indicate whether they misused their public offices to amass the wealth.

The Election Commission should also be given the authority to examine all the affidavits and not of the winning candidates only to eliminate people with a dubious background from contesting the elections.

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