Hyderabad: Politicians facing criminal charges and aspiring to contest the elections cannot file nomination papers unless they publish the details of the pending cases against them in newspapers having wide circulation or on television, said the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Supreme Court on September 25 refused to bar candidates with criminal antecedents from contesting elections and passed the onus on to parliament. But the court did make a few changes and directed the ECI to frame fresh guidelines. Following this, the ECI has directed candidates to publish the status of criminal cases filed against them.
It is also mandatory for the candidates to mention the details of total dues they have in lieu of government accommodation, income-tax, GST, and municipal or property tax dues, in Form-26 of the affidavit.
Candidates are also required to disclose the sources of income of self, spouse and all dependents. Dependents are now defined as parents, sons, daughters or any other person dependent on the candidate and who has no other means of livelihood.
This new rule of the ECI is not good news for politicians like Goshamahal BJP MLA Raja Singh who reportedly has 100 cases registered against him, or AIMIM second-in-command Akbaruddin Owaisi who has eight criminal cases filed against him. Gangula Kamalakar of the TRS (MLA from Karimnagar) has seven cases, Ahmed Pasha Qadri of the AIMIM has six cases and Congress working president Revanth Reddy is charged in multiple cases.
The ECI has also provided the format in which the newspaper and TV advertisement needs to be published. The font size has to be 12 point and the news must be published at least thrice from the day following the last day of withdrawal of nominations and up to 48 hours before the actual polling. However, the ECI has not specified the number of newspapers or TV channels this should be published/broadcast in.
D. Rakesh Reddy, who follows elections keenly, said, "After the contesting candidates publish the details of pending criminal cases, they have to mention the same in Format (C-1) of the affidavit. And this column cannot be left vacant. Earlier, candidates were required to submit an additional affidavit regarding public dues, which they managed to avoid. However, now the ECI has incorporated this section in Form 26.
He says another important requirement is that candidates who have bagged government or private contracts must provide details, including the status of the project. This includes companies registered in the name of spouse/dependents, added a senior officer with the ECI.
