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| Money and muscle power has its way upto Rajya Sabha | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, June 19: Elections are won through money and muscle power. This has sadly been becoming a fact of public life. Yet, Rajya Sabha should have been above from this since parties nominate candidates and elections are indirect where votes are cast if necessary by members of the State Legislatures. But parties have preferred to opt for those endowed with wealth and facing trial for none too good reasons which often include serious criminal offences when it came to selecting candidates for recently concluded polls for the Upper House of Parliament.
This has been borne out by in an analysis of criminal and financial details of candidates and winners of recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections for 55 seats in 13 States by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) both voluntary organisations. The analysis is based on sworn affidavits filed by candidates with the Election Commission.
Affidavits could be analysed for 49 seats for 12 states since affidavits for Tamil Nadu candidates and winners could not yet be available from the Chief Electoral Officer of the State despite repeated requests by these organizations, according to a Press release issued here today by national coordinator of the twin organisations that undertook the task of the analysis of the Rajya Sabha biennial and byelections held in two phases on June 14 and 17th. In all, 54 affidavits have been included in the study. Some of its findings are:
A total of 15 candidates (i.e.28%) declared in their affidavits that they have pending criminal cases against them. Out of these 15 with pending criminal cases, six have declared serious criminal cases pending in their name - including that of attempt to murder, wrongful confinement and related to cheating and forgery. All the candidates with pending criminal cases have won the elections.
Most parties opted for candidates with pending criminal cases. Of the major parties, Congress nominated three candidates (i.e.19%) with pending criminal cases out of 16 candidates. BJP nominated two out of 11 (i.e. 17%) such candidates, BSP nominated one out of seven (i.e. 14%) such candidates. NCP nominated two out of two (i.e. 100%) such candidates.
Among candidates with serious pending cases, one each from Congress, BJP, BSP, Shiv Sena, IND, and TDP have declared that they have pending serious criminal cases against them. All these candidates have won the election.
Among candidates with pending serious criminal cases, Prof Baghel S P Singh (BSP from UP) has declared a case of attempt to murder pending against him. Dr Vijay Mallya (Independent from Karnataka) has declared cases related to FERA and cheating and dishonesty pending against him. Gundu Sudha Rani (TDP from Andhra Pradesh) has declared pending cases related to promoting enmity between different groups on basis of religion etc. against her. Rashid Masood (SP from UP) has declared pending cases related to Prevention of Corruption Act against him. Most parties preferred nominating candidates with high assets. Out of 54 contesting candidates in 12 States 43 are Crorepatis i.e. 79.6%. Thirty-eight out of 49 (77.6%) of newly elected Rajya Sabha members happen to be Crorepatis who have won the elections.
The average asset for the candidates declared in their affidavits is Rs 24.45 crores. For the winners the average asset is Rs 25.24 Crores.
The highest assets have been declared by Dr. Vijaya Mallya (IND) from Karnataka. This is at a whopping Rs 615 Crores. He is followed by Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary (TDP) from Andhra Pradesh with Rs 189.7 Crores, followed by Kanwar Deep Singh (JMM) from Jharkhand who has Rs 82.6 Crores.
The lowest assets declared were by Anil Dave from BJP with only Rs 2.7 lakhs. He is followed by Ram Kripal Yadav, RJD, who declared assets worth Rs 27.32 lakhs and by Shashi Bhushan Behera of Biju Janata Dal with assets worth Rs 29.74 lakhs.
Three candidates Dheeraj Prasad Sahu (INC, Rs 14.76 crores), Rashid Masood (SP, Rs 5.14 crores) and Shashi Bhushan Behera (BJD, Rs 29 lakhs) did not furnish their PAN cards' reference in their affidavits.
Three candidates have declared that they own no immovable assets (including property either commercial or residential). Among them are: Dr Vijaya Mallya (IND, total assets Rs 615 Crores), Jairam Ramesh (INC, total assets Rs 61 lakhs) and Anil Dave(BJP, total assets 2.7 lakhs). The representation of women candidates in the recently held Council of States elections despite so much hype about women's reservation bill was abysmally low with just three women candidates having been fielded by all the parties. Fortunately all of them have won.
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