Criminal cases: parties flout SC order on candidate disclosures

New Delhi: Political parties failed to fully comply with the Supreme Court’s directive to disclose why they selected candidates with criminal cases, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) covering the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.

The report found that parties fielded 1,405 candidates with criminal cases across the five states. While the reasons for selecting 1,214 candidates were made public, no explanation was provided for the remaining 191.

The Supreme Court requires parties to publish details of candidates’ criminal antecedents and the reasons for choosing them within 72 hours of their selection. The information must be made available through newspapers, party websites and social media platforms using the Election Commission’s prescribed C7 format.

ADR, however, found that several parties failed to properly explain why they could not select candidates without criminal cases. Instead, parties often cited the individual candidate’s qualifications in general terms. In some instances, identical reasons were reportedly provided for multiple candidates.

The BJP did not publish the required information for eight of its 302 candidates with criminal cases, while the Congress failed to disclose details for 13 of 202 such candidates. The Trinamool Congress, by contrast, published information for all 116 such candidates it fielded in West Bengal and Assam.

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry also recorded significant lapses. Actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam failed to disclose details for 29 of its 103 candidates with criminal cases. The DMK omitted information for 22 of 78 candidates, while the CPI(M) failed to provide details for 12 of 150.

Puducherry recorded the highest proportion of undisclosed cases, with reasons missing for 27 of 39 candidates.