Major political parties, including the BJP, Congress, and AAP, failed to provide reasons as mandated by the Supreme Court for selecting candidates with criminal cases in various states for the 2026 Assembly elections.
According to a study conducted by the non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms, major political parties skipped disclosing details of 191 candidates with criminal cases for the 2026 Assembly elections as required by the Supreme Court. The study was released on Thursday and covered elections held in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry. Under the Supreme Court’s rules, parties are obligated to publish Form C7, providing reasons for selecting candidates with pending criminal cases over candidates without a criminal background. The study analyzed Form C7 disclosures of 3,539 candidates fielded by 51 major political parties across these five states and one Union territory.
The analysis revealed that out of the 1,405 candidates who had declared criminal cases in their election affidavits, parties published Form C7 disclosures for only 1,214, or 86%. Tamil Nadu had the highest number of missing disclosures with parties publishing disclosures for only 401 out of 473 candidates. West Bengal followed suit with 55 missing disclosures among 559 candidates, while Kerala had 27 missing disclosures out of 268. Assam had 10 missing disclosures among 66 candidates, and Puducherry had the highest share of missing disclosures, with 27 of 39 candidates not having a Form C7 disclosure.
The study also found that the BJP did not publish disclosures for eight of its 302 candidates with criminal cases. The Congress did not publish them for 13 of its 202 candidates. In contrast, the Trinamool Congress published disclosures for all 116 of its candidates with criminal cases.
Source:
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