Congress leads in giving tickets to tainted netas

Did you know that 98 politicians with corruption cases have been given election tickets by various parties in the last 5 years?

A study conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms following the recent sentencing of Om Prakash Chautala, Indian National Lok Dal leader and former Haryana chief minister, by a CBI court states that out of the 98 candidates, 36 won the elections.

These include four sitting MPs in current Lok Sabha, three sitting MPs in Rajya Sabha and 29 MLAs in various state assemblies.

The study found that Congress leads the pack of parties giving tickets to candidates facing cases under Prevention of Corruption Act.

The party has given tickets to 24 such individuals.

Other parties in the list include Bahujan Samaj Party (9 candidates), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (7 candidates), Shiromani Akali Dal (6 candidates), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (5 candidates), Bharatiya Janata Party (5 candidates), Indian National Lok Dal (4 candidates) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (4 candidates).

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, a total of 15 candidates with cases under Prevention of Corruption cases were given tickets by various political parties.

The Congress gave tickets to 4, the BSP and the BJP 2 each and the AIADMK, SAD, DMK, RJD,  INLD, Janata Dal-United and Samajwadi Party 1 each.

Four out of these 15 candidates won:

* Jagdis Sharma (JD-U) from Jahanabad
* Rajaiah Siricilla (Congress) from Warangal
* Dr Rattan Sign Ajnala (SAD) from Khadoor Sahib
* Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD) from Saran.

In the Rajya Sabha, 3 MPs have declared corruption cases against them. These are T M Selvaganapathi (DMK), Faggan Singh Kulaste (BJP) and Rashid Masood (Congress).

As far as the state assemblies are concerned, the report says, 80 candidates with corruption cases were allocated election tickets in the last 5 years.

Of these, 29 won and are currently MLAs.

While 7 out of the 29 are from Tamil Nadu, three each belong to Haryana, Jharkhand and Punjab. Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa assemblies have 2 MLAs each with corruption cases against them.

Once again Congress leads the pack with 8 tainted legislators followed by 6 from AIADMK, 3 from INLD and 2 from SAD.