Hyderabad: Ahead of the state Assembly elections, Forum for Good Governance has requested political parties to avoid issuing tickets to candidates with criminal backgrounds.
In a letter addressed to chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao the forum informed there are currently close to one-third of MLAs who have a criminal background.
“If this trend is allowed to continue the day is not far off that only criminals will be sitting in Assembly,” said FGG.
“Land grabbers, bank loan defaulters, and persons amassing huge wealth through illegal means are entering into politics to protect their ill-gotten wealth and to accumulate further wealth,” the forum stated.
In order to avert the situation, the forum requested KCR to consider people from poor and middle-class families and people of eminence to enter politics.
Supreme Court’s 2018 order
The Supreme Court, in 2018, passed orders in connection with the issuance of tickets by political parties to people with criminal records.
- If a candidate is contesting an election on the ticket of a particular party, he /she is required to inform the party about the criminal cases pending against him/her.
- The concerned political party shall be obliged to put up on its own website the aforesaid information pertaining to the candidates having criminal antecedents.
- The candidate as well as the concerned political party shall issue a declaration in the widely circulated newspapers in the locality about the antecedents of the candidate and also give wide publicity in the electronic media at least thrice after filing of the nomination papers.
- These directions ought to be implemented in true spirit and right earnestness in a bid to strengthen the democratic set.
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