Ch'garh: 10% candidates are criminals; time for negative voting?

Raipur, Nov 4: According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, nearly 10 percent of the candidates contesting the assembly elections this year in

are facing crimina offence charges. Out of them 6 candidates are booked with serious offences. On an overall, around 143 candidates have been declared with criminal offences, out of which 15 have declared that they are facing criminal offences in their affidavits to the Election Commission.

Interestingly, smaller parties too have 'bigger heroes'. Rajesh Gupta of the Chhattisgarh Swabhiman Morcha (CSM) is facing 5 criminal offences, while his party colleague Janisar Akhtar is facing 4 cases. Independen candidate Nazrul Islam Khan is facing 4 criminal cases.

Out of the 40 candidates facing criminal cases, 4 are from the main opposition, BJP has 3 candidates, CSM have 5, 3 from communist parties, and 8 are from BSP. There is no lack of crorepatis too. Ajit Jogi's wife Renu Jogi has declared assets of more than 6 crores, same is the case with the current chief minister Raman Singh with 5 crore worth asset.

An interesting perview of the candidature is that 11 of the 25 crorepati candidates face criminal charges and 40 percent outside these have not declared their PAN numbers; however, 37 percent have filed their I-T returns. Academically too, only 38 percent of the candidates are graduates or above.

Let's see if the candidates have to face the music of their career 'experiences'.

OneIndia News