Sign the petition against criminalization of politics

One out of every five MLAs in five states where elections were held recently has a criminal background. In NCT this figure is close to 40%.

Of a total of 549 MLAs elected to assemblies in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram, 124 have criminal records with the Congress topping the list with 59 while the BJP has 49, according to a report prepared by ‘National Election Watch’.

Madhya Pradesh has a maximum of 54 such legislators while Rajasthan is second with 30 MLAs with criminal backgrounds. Delhi has 27 tainted MLAs followed by Chhattisgarh with 11 and Mizoram has 3.

Of the 3,179 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, 91 had criminal background, the study said, adding 27 legislators from the BJP, 23 from Congress and four others with criminal background won the elections. This constituted 23 per cent of the total 230 MLAs who were elected to the BJP-ruled state, the report claimed.

In Rajasthan, 2,194 candidates contested the polls, and 189 had criminal records. Thirteen from the Congress, seven from the BJP, and 10 others, including three from the BSP, won the polls, it said, adding 15 per cent of the 200 Rajasthan MLAs had a criminal background.

National capital Delhi, where 91 candidates had a criminal background, 16 from the Congress and nine from the BJP won in the electoral battle besides one each from the BSP and INLD. The figure comes to a whopping 39 per cent of a total of 70 seats.

In Chhattisgarh, which went to polls for 90 seats, a total of 1,066 candidates contested of whom nearly 76 had criminal records. The BJP and Congress MLAS with criminal records stood at six and five respectively, constituting nearly 12 per cent of the total seats.

The situation is no better in the Parliament. Nearly a quarter (23.2%) of the MPs has reported criminal cases against them. One out of two among them (over 50%) have cases that could attract penalties of imprisonment of five or more years. The states of Bihar, U.P., Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh that account for over 50% of the MPs with the high penalty criminal cases.

To sign the petition against criminalization of politics: http://www.petitiononline.com/indiaadr/