Date: 
07.05.2011

LUCKNOW: Criminalisation of politics has gone a full circle in Uttar Pradesh to reach its present stage : Politicisation of criminals. The parties now unabashedly dismiss allegations of criminal misconduct against fellow criminal politicians as a political vendetta.

If the Samajwadi Party (SP) has named mafia don Abhay Singh and Ajay Misra as its candidates for the 2012 assembly elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is set to field the sitting MLAs -- Jitendra Singh Babloo and Purshottum Dwvivedi. Of the total 270 names declared by the SP so far, there are 18 others who have four or more criminal cases pending against them.

The four candidates named above have had more than 12 criminal cases pending against them at one point or the other. Presently, Abhay Singh is in jail in connection with the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai while Ajay Misra is behind bars for the bomb attack on BSP minister Nand Gopal Nandi. But the SP finds them clean enough to represent the party in 2012 polls.

Refusing to be quoted, a BSP minister recently claimed that his party will get rid of criminal candidates for the assembly elections. "I can assure you that the BSP will stand out on the issue this time," he said. A couple of days later BSP chief declared that Jitendra Singh Babloo was not a criminal and that allegations of arson against him were politically motivated.

"Just wait and see. Let the other parties declare their lists of candidates and you should not be surprised to find that we will have the minimum numbers of such candidates," SP state president Akhilesh Singh and the likely CM candidate of the party says. This, when the SP holds the dubious distinction of fielding maximum number of candidates in polls is another matter.

Of the 38 candidates in fray in 2009 general elections, SP fielded 17 candidates of whom 10 had criminal antecedents. The corresponding figures for BSP were seven followed by Congress (four) and BJP (three).

But it was worse during the 2007 assembly elections. A total of 882 candidates in the fray had criminal cases pending against them. The corresponding figures for 2002 polls was 506, of whom 206 won. In 2007 also, SP topped the list with 148 candidates with a criminal record followed by BSP (131), BJP (104), Congress (89) and RLD (35). The remaining 379 were from smaller parties or independents.

The situation with the ruling BSP seems no different. Be it Jitendra Singh Babloo, who was recently released on bail, or BSP MLA from Banda Purshottum Dwvivedi - accused of kidnapping and raping a minor - the two are almost sure of getting SP ticket in 2012 polls.

In both the instances, the party chiefs find no fault in fielding them and justify their acts of crime as "a result of political vendetta". That all the four have cases of heinous crimes like murder, kidnapping and rape pending against them, hardly remains a concern for the political parties. With the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet to announce their candidates, one can only hope that tainted persons are kept away from the electoral arena.

City: 
LUCKNOW
Source url: 
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-07/lucknow/29520138_1_criminal-candidates-bsp-mla-cm-candidate
Author: 
Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
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