BJP Nominated Highest Number of Candidates Facing Charges of Crime Against Women: Report

Forty-five MLAs and three MPs have declared cases related to crime against women, according to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). With 12 lawmakers, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has the highest number of MPs or MLAs facing charges of crimes against women, followed by Shiv Sena with seven lawmakers, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) with six lawmakers, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with five lawmakers, Indian National Congress (INC) with four lawmakers and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) with four lawmakers.

While the country is witnessing nation-wide protests against the increasing number of crimes against women, the ADR report has further revealed the tainted character of lawmakers and political parties. 

Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of lawmakers – 12 MPs or MLAs, who have declared cases related to crimes against women, followed by West Bengal with 11 lawmakers, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh each with five MPs or MLAs facing such charges.

Three sitting MLAs – Gonuguntla Suryanarayana from the TDP, Jetabhai G. Ahir from BJP and Gulab Yadav from RJD – have declared cases related to rape against them.

ADR report has revealed that in the last five years, BJP has given tickets to 47 candidates, who are facing cases of crime against women – again highest among political parties in this category. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ranks second with having nominated 35 such candidates in the same period, followed by Congress, Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party nominating 24, 22 and 17 candidates respectively.

In the last five years, while 445 candidates with declared cases of crime against women had contested for Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state assembly elections, 327 candidates among them were given tickets by recognised political parties. The remaining 118 contestants have been independent candidates. Of these, while recognised parties have given tickets to 26 candidates who had declared cases related to rape, 14 candidates with such charges have contested independently.

All these crimes are of serious nature, where charges have been framed and cognisance has been taken by the courts. This unveils a shocking facet of the country’s political scenario.

ADR, along with National Election Watch, have analysed 4845 out of 4896 election affidavits of current MPs and MLAs, including 768 affidavits of MPs and 4077 affidavits of MLAs from all the states while compiling this report. 

As the major political parties are encouraging the candidates with such serious crimes to contest in elections, thus, in a way abetting to circumstances that lead to such crimes.

In this context, ADR think tank has put forward three recommendations – debarring candidates with serious criminal background from contesting elections, mandating political parties to disclose the criteria on which the candidates are given tickets and fast-tracking the cases against MPs and MLAs in a time-bound manner.