HYDERABAD: While it is a known fact that almost half of the contestants who’ve recently contested in the assembly elections, it was a mandate for the candidates to declare the criminal cases that they are facing. However, not many seem to have complied with the order.
According to the Supreme Court order, dated September 25, 2018, it mandated all the candidates to declare their antecedents in widely circulated newspapers and publicity in the electronic media for three times after filing nomination papers.
“A very few contesting candidates obeyed the orders of the Supreme Court. Many of them just ignored,”observed M Padmanabha Reddy, convenor of Forum for Good Governance. “Just days before the polling date, we have brought this non-compliance of court order to Chief Electoral Officer, but there was no response,” Padmanabha Reddy added.
With this, the present Assembly will have as many as 67 MLAs of the total 119 MLAs, who recently got elected to the Telangana State Assembly on December 7, have criminal cases pending against them. TRS tops the list followed by Praja Kutami (People’s Front) and Majilis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). An analysis by Forum for Good Governance found out that more than 55 per cent elected candidates have criminal cases. Some of the cases related to issues like rasta roko, rail roko and other cases etc.
Earlier, State government has withdrawn many such cases and the cases now shown are pending since more than five years as per the own affidavits filed by contesting candidates. TRS tops the list, of the elected 88 MLA, as many as 44 MLAs have criminal cases pending against them while 21 MLAs of Mahakutami have cases against 16 MLAs and six out of seven MIM MLAs have criminal cases, lone BJP MLA, Raja Singh to have criminal cases, according to Forum for Good Governance, Secretary, M Padmanabha Reddy.