According to supreme court lawyer dhruv Gupta, the provisions regarding any candidate contesting elections have been explained in detail in the Representation of the people Act 1951. At present there is no ban on any undertrial accused from contesting elections. Gupta says - In the latest order of the Supreme Court, it has been said that only candidates should be allowed to contest elections after providing information about their criminal cases. That means any candidate who has been sentenced for less than 2 years or whose case is undertrial can contest the elections.

How dear is taint to political parties?

Let us first talk about lok sabha elections. According to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), the number of tainted MPs in the lok sabha in 2004 was 24%, out of which the number of MPs with serious crimes was 12%. This number increased slightly in 2009. In 2009, 30% of MPs were tainted, out of which 14% had serious charges. In 2019, this figure increased by about one and a half times. 43% of the MPs who won the 2019 elections have criminal cases registered against them.

Even in assembly elections, political parties shower their love on tainted leaders. In Madhya Pradesh, there were 407 candidates in the electoral fray in 2013, which increased to 759 in 2018. This is almost twice as much as in 2013. In 2013, 91 tainted candidates of congress, 61 of bjp and 54 of BSP were in the fray.

There was a huge increase in this number in 2018. In 2018, congress gave tickets to 108 leaders, bjp to 65 and BSP to 37 leaders with criminal image.

An increase in the number of tainted leaders was also seen in Rajasthan. In 2018, criminal cases were pending against 320 candidates in Rajasthan. This was much more than the number of 224 in 2013. In Rajasthan, congress had fielded 43 tainted candidates in 2018. In comparison to congress, bjp had given tickets to 33 tainted candidates. In Rajasthan, BSP had fielded 178 candidates, out of which 31 candidates of the party were of tainted image.