Bihar civic polls: and how to filter out the criminal and make politics clean, cleaner…
Patna: according to the latest reports, around 53 persons with criminal records filed their nominations for the civic polls in Patna on Thursday. Even though the state election commission has put criminal cases on speedy trials the aspirants refuse to be deterred. The simple conclusion may, it is during the elections that you see the greatest gathering of criminals popping up on the surface of public life. Otherwise, such characters keep to themselves doing their jobs as quietly as possible. There are two ways of looking at this – politics and the elections as the disinfecting shower that cleanses the candidate getting him ready for an untainted career. The other take may be – the candidate ends up muddying the whole water supply with his villainous odours. At times, the winner may even continue with a double face, the civil one as well as the criminal one behind the mask of respectability. One has to admit that a political career does increasingly put a leash on the criminal, who must move about more carefully than before. Let us admit though in the past we have had criminals in Bihar whose crime careers received a strong boost from politics, if anything!
According to the joint election commissioner Ahibhushan Pandey “While filing nomination for civic polls, a candidate is required to submit Proforma B, in which he/she is required to fill up details of any criminal cases pending against them in the past six months. On the basis of information filled up by the candidates, we forward the cases to the senior superintendent of police of the areas concerned. We put such cases on speedy trail, which is normally finalised within the next six months. However, in no case a candidate would be barred from contesting the election except when one is declared ‘wanted’ in a criminal case”.
What sounds very promising is Pandey’s assurance that if a candidate does not fill accurate information related to his criminal background and such records are found later, then the election commission would lodge an FIR against that candidate. “In case crime is proved and imprisonment is awarded to a candidate for a period of more than six months, who wins the poll, then his election would be void,” said Pandey.
According to records available with the election commission, 1,274 people filed their nominations across the state till Thursday, including 56 with alleged criminal background. With 12 such nominations, Nalanda topped the list of districts with most number of tainted candidates to be followed by eight from Gaya and Patna and Araria holding a joint third position.
Many such tainted candidates have pending criminal cases against them under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 147 (rioting) among others of the Indian Penal Code.
Approximately 60 lakh voters are expected to cast their franchise on May 16 to elect 2,760 ward councillors from 114 urban local bodies spread across seven municipal corporations, 38 municipal councils and 69 nagar panchayats in the state.
With the marriage season having started from April 18 and will continuing till April 25, look at the following constraint imposed by the election commission:
“To ensure that no undue publicity is used by candidates, any leader who has been given vehicles, red/blue beacon lights, bodyguard/armed guard, escort and other security arrangement by the government, is not allowed to participate in marriage ceremonies of any candidate contesting in the civic polls in any case. Else, it would be considered contempt of model code of conduct. Moreover, these political leaders are also not allowed to entertain any candidate or organise any procession or public gathering in the municipal area till the time of election,” said Pandey. He added that the political leaders have to take prior permission from the commission if they are moving through a municipal area.
To sum up, one wonders if the criminal elements will manage to pass through all these filters safely and come to haunt the civic bodies in Bihar for the next few years. What better time than the elections to do the sifting to separate the rotten apples from the rest!