CRIMINAL SELECTION!

Tainted candidates in Himachal: CPM in the lead

Published: Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012, 8:33 IST 
By Ajay Bhardwaj | Place: Shimla | Agency: DNA

As many as 69 of the total 459 candidates contesting in the forthcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections have criminal cases pending against them.

According to a report by the Election Watch, almost all major political parties have given tickets to politicians with criminal background.

While the CPM takes the cake with the highest percentage at 63% — as ten of its total 16 candidates have criminal background — the Congress comes next with 16 of the total 68 candidates with criminal records, constituting 24%. The other major party, the BJP, has seven candidates with criminal records on the total seats which forms 10%.

Similarly, the BSP has fielded eight candidates out of 62 (13%) and the Himachal Lokhit Party six of32 (19%).

Almost 30 of these candidates have serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion pending against them and 11 others have cases of theft and dacoity pending against them.

Three sitting ministers of the BJP government, Ravinder Singh, irrigation and power minister; Ramesh Dhawala, public distribution and consumer affairs minister; and Kishan Kapoor, industries minister, face charges of kidnapping and criminal conspiracy.

Four sitting Congress MLAs Subhash Manglate, Lakhvinder Singh, Neeraj Bharti and Rakesh Kalia, have been on trials in criminal cases as well, besides, PCC president and chief ministerial candidate Virbhadra Singh.

Virbhadra resigned from the Union cabinet in June after a special court in Shimla framed charges of corruption against him. Five other candidates along with him have pending cases registered against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.