By Hooks or by Crooks

By hook or by crooks Pragatis The Indian National Interest Review Having a criminal case registered does not disqualify a candidate from contesting parliamentary elections - a look at how this plays out for the Lok Sabha http://pragati.nationalinterest.in infographic During the 2009 Parliamentary Elections, 129 elected MPs had one or more criminal cases registered against them, nearly a fourth of the 543 Lok Sabha seats The win percentage' for contenders with clean records (grey bars) increased significantly for the INC in the 2009 election, while their 'criminal contenders (red/pink bars) were elected less often - the trend reversed for the BJP over this period CONSTITUENCES WHERE THE VOTER TURNOUT VOTING PATTERN, egned ectoein VOTER TURNOUT v. WNNER HAS MORE THAN TWO Consthuercy REGISTERED CRMNAL CADES CONSTITUENCES WHERE E WNER HAS ONE OR TWO REGISTERED ORMNAL CAES MARGIN OF VICTORY MPs: CRIMINAL CASES & PARLIAMENTARY ATTENDANCE CONSTITUENES WHERE ALL THE CONTENpEREHAD REGISTERED ORMNAL CADES 85% Both parties fielded more contenders with criminal records 79.1% CONSTTUENCES WERENONE OF HE CONTENDERG HAD A 72.2% 68.3% 64.1% REGISTERED ORNAL CASE CONSTITUENCES WHERE ONE OF THE LOGNG CONTENDES HDA 75% Most of the contenders who had more than two 40% 56% REGISTERED ORMNAL CASE 419% criminal cases and won, did so from constituencies with lower voter turnouts, 65% as well as lower victory margins 39% NO O RECORDS ZERO CASES 1 to 2 CASES 6+ CASES 3 to 5 CASES RECOrDS The 15th Lok Sabha has seen lower average attendance from MPs with more criminal cases In fact, the average voter tumout in these "maroon 55% constituencies (52%) is lower than the national 50% 55% 54% 71% 2009 110 2004 2009 2004 average (60%) 45% MPS WITH REGISTERED CRIMINAL CASES ACROSS THE STATES, 15th LOK SABHA MRON OF VCTORY Dororce nof votes -2004 Nearly half of the so% MPs from Bihar 2009 between wre and une- 35% and Jharkhand 0% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 27% 25% have registered criminal cases, 21% 24 34 17% 14% The charges against candidates span a wide range, from defamation and forgery to violence, murder and attempts to murder. One MP, K. Baitha, is a former Naxalite commander, and was once responsible for what might be described as insurgency. Here are some examples 20 The largest contributor is still Uttar Pradesh, P KARUNAKARAN CPM, KASARGOD BAL KUMAR PATEL SP, MRZAPUR The MP from Mirzapur (where Phoolan Devi contested from) while Maharashtra has KAMESHWAR BAITHA JMM, PALAMAU Kameshwar Baitha, the JMM candidate from Palamau, won TATHAGATA SATPATHY RAMKISHUN SP, CHANDAULU BJD, DHENKANAL Satpathy, editor of Orlya daly. The Dharitri, has 13 registered criminal cases against him - al 13 are under PC 500 and IPC 501 (Defamation, and Printing of as two charges of IPC 188 Defamatory Articles) seen a sudden decline Ramkishun has to his name three counts of IPC 307 (Attermpt to Murder) within his 11 registered crimes, as well Karunakaran won from the election from inside Rohtas Jal, where he was being held Kasargod in both 2004 and 2009. Most of his 12 charges has been facing charges of are of forgery and defamation murder, rioting, kidnapping. forgery, and multiple charges under the Ams act. Patel's for his some of his 46 registered cases, which include murder, cupable homicide, dacoity, attempts to murder, etc. (Destruction of Public Property) brother, Shiv Kumar, an amed robber who operated under the alas of Dadua, was shot by the police in 2007 JH UP GJ Мн OR MH TN AP KA CG MP PB AS WB Others HR RJ DL ACKNOLWDGEMENTS: Most of the data was sourced from the website of the Liberty Institute, http://ww.empoweringindia.com. Parliamentary attendance data is from PRS Legislative Research, http://www.prsindia.org. Information from official websites of the Indian Govemment have been used to fill in gaps and verify. In case you spot an error, do write in to [email protected].