Jharkhand Assembly election: Political slugfest begins after PIL says 51 of 81 MLAs tainted

Ahead of assembly election in Jharkhand, nexus between crime and politics has become an issue of debate in the state, where tainted candidates had done well in the last assembly polls. The question that is being asked is this: Should MLAs or candidates with tainted past contest Jharkhand Assembly election?

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Jharkhand High Court seeking direction to the political parties to deny tickets to tainted candidates. Filed by a non-governmental orgnisation (NGO), the petition says that 51 out of 81 MLAs, who won in 2014 Jharkhand Assembly election have criminal cases pending against them.

The high court has sought status of the cases against these MLAs from the Raghubar Das government of the BJP. The development has come at a time when a notification for Jharkhand Assembly election is expected in a couple of weeks.

The Jharkhand High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice HC Mishra and Justice Apresh Singh issued notice to the state government asking it file the status report.

The issue of tainted MLAs has led to a political scuffle between the ruling BJP and Opposition parties the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). State BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo defended induction of SBP Mehta in the party.

Mehta is an accused in a murder case but is considered influential. He was elected in 2016 by-election from Panki reserved seat in Palamu district of Jharkhand. He is the director of Oxford Public School of Ranchi.

The Congress slammed the BJP for inducting a murder-accused in the party for electoral consideration. Shahdeo, however, defended saying that the Congress needed introspection on the issue of tainted leaders as both its interim chief Sonia Gandhi and former president Rahul Gandhi have been chargesheeted in the National Herald case.

Mehta had won the bypoll as JMM candidate. The JMM, incidentally, lost two MLAs in the past five years due to conviction in criminal cases. However, in one case, wife of the convicted MLA was fielded by the JMM in the bypoll and she won the seat in an indication that crime-taint does not really matter to her voters.

JMM general secretary Vinod Pandey, in party’s defence, blamed the taint on the ruling BJP saying that the cases were politically motivated. Pandey claimed that the cases against JMM legislators were fabricated by the BJP government.