A woman whose late husband was a strongman from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and who has served a jail sentence for illegal supply of liquor and whose son Rocky Yadav is in prison for life for murder, is the ruler Janata Dal (United ), or JD (U), candidate for the Aria seat in the Bihar assembly elections.
JD (U) justifies his nomination of Manorama Devi, Bindi Yadav’s widow, on the grounds that he has done extensive work in his previous term as a member of the Legislative Council (MLC).
“Elected as a member of the Legislative Council of the constituency of local bodies consisting of the districts of Gaya, Arwal and Jahanabad, as a representative of the local body, Devi has done extensive work in the field of decentralization, especially programs related to women”. read a document on the JD (U) website.
Devi surrendered on May 17, 2016, and was granted bail by the Patna High Court on June 7, 2016, after being charged with illegally supplying dry liquor.
She is only one of the candidates with a criminal record presented by the parties in the three-phase elections scheduled for October 28, November 3 and 7, despite the fact that on February 13 the Supreme Court ruled that all political parties they must justify the contestants they choose based on their qualifications and merits.
According to people familiar with the matter, six leading parties have sent reports to the Electoral Commission (EC) explaining why they chose candidates facing criminal cases. More than 100 recognized and unrecognized state and national parties have presented their candidates at the polls.
The persons cited above said, on condition of anonymity, that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), JD (U), RJD, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M) , have complied with the directive. According to data from the EC, 327, or more than 30%, of the 1,065 candidates presented in the first phase of the elections have criminal cases pending against them. The electoral watchdog has not provided a partisan separation of candidates with pending cases.
Other political parties, including Congress, are expected to submit their compliance reports soon. “We have been given time until Thursday and we will send the report accordingly,” said a congressional party leader who did not want to be named.
RJD has put forward the most candidates with criminal records so far, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-governmental organization that works for political and electoral reform, said in a report released Tuesday.
The report said that 30 (73%) of the 41 RJD candidates in the fray in the first phase of the survey have a criminal record. Similarly, 21 (72%) of the 29 BJP candidates, 24 (59%) of the 41 Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) nominees, and 12 (57%) of the 21 Congressional contestants have criminal cases pending in their against. JD (U) has submitted 15 (43%) and BSP eight (31%) candidates with criminal records, according to the ADR report.
HT reached out to Sanjay Yadav of the RJD and Bhupendra Yadav of the BJP, but received no comment as of press time.
ADR co-founder Jagdeep Chhokar said a law must be passed that prohibits those with criminal charges against them from contesting the polls. “JD (U) has stated the reasons for the selection of candidates [with pending criminal cases] on your website, including popularity and sympathy … “” If I were the EC, I would not accept these reasons. The reports are likely to be a sham. “
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