Madhya Pradesh Election Watch Association for Democratic Reforms has asked the political parties not to give tickets to candidates having criminal records.  The association said that major political parties including Congress, BJP and BSP had given the tickets to 326 candidates with criminal antecedent during Assembly elections 2013.

Association members including Arun Gurtru, Rakesh Diwan, CK Naidu and others have written to political parties to ensure that only candidates having clean image were fielded for the upcoming polls. Supreme Court is hearing several PILs seeking to bar persons facing serious criminal charges from electoral politics to check ‘criminalisation of politics’. The members are demanding that court should step in to ensure that no criminal is allowed to contest polls. The registration of the party giving tickets to criminals should be cancelled, they added.

Citing the figures, the association said that as per 2013 Assembly elections data, BJP had given ticket to 61 candidates against whom FIR was registered, 37 of these were booked on serious criminal charges. Congress had fielded 91 candidates with criminal records, of these 50 were booked under serious sections of IPC.

Even BSP is also not far behind, the party gave tickets to 54 candidates against whom FIR was registered, 33 of them faced serious criminal charges. The association members will launch public outreach programme to make people aware and urge them to vote for candidate with clean image.