226 MLA candidates in Telangana face criminal cases

Hyderabad: As many as 226 candidates belonging to four major political parties in Telangana Assembly elections have criminal cases against them.

According to a report by the Forum for Good Governance, for 119 Assembly seats there are 360 candidates of parties like BRS, Congress, BJP, MIM.

The Congress party tops the list with 84 candidates with criminal record.

The BJP stands second with 78 candidates. The BRS has 58 candidates with cases pending against them. The NGO took up analysis of candidates having criminal records.

A committee analysed the affidavits filed by the candidates and prepared a report.

Some candidates are having cases registered during Telangana agitation and some have criminal cases and few others have cases of both the types.

Some small cases don’t need any cognizance but as the candidates have shown the cases in their affidavits, the committee took them into account.

Out of 118 candidates of the Congress party, 84 candidates have criminal cases against them. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A. Revanth Reddy tops the list with 89 cases.

Vedma Bhojju from Kahanapur (ST) constituency has 52 cases.

Kokkirala Premsagar Rao of Mancherial has 32 candidates. Purumall Srinivas from Karimnagar has 24 cases.

T. Jayaprakash Reddy from Sangareddy has 20 cases.

Out of 111 candidates of BJP, 78 have criminal cases against them while there are 89 cases against BJP MLA T. Raja Singh, who is seeking re-election. He is notorious for delivering hate speeches and has been booked many times for hurting religious sentiments of other communities. BJP general secretary and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is contesting from Karimnagar Assembly constituency, has 59 cases.

Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao, who is BJP candidate from Boath (ST), has 55 cases against him. There are 40 cases against former minister and BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, who is contesting from Huzurabad.

There are 27 cases against BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao, who is seeking re-election from Dubbak constituency.

Out of 119 candidates of BRS, 58 have cases against them. Civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar, who is seeking re-election from Karimnagar, has 10 cases.

There are nine cases against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is seeking re-election from Gajwel and is also contesting from Kamareddy constituency.

BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, who is contesting again from Siricilla, has eight cases. Six out of nine candidates of MIM have cases against them.

Akbaruddin Owaisi leads with six cases while five others have one case each against them. M. Padmanabha Reddy, president, Centre for Good Governance said that cases against some candidates have been pending since the last 15 to 20 years.

“God forbid, if all the candidates who have criminal cases are elected our Assembly will be full of people with criminal background,” he said.

“Political parties gave tickets to winnable candidates irrespective of their criminal record. This is not good for our democracy,” he added.

He mentioned that the Supreme Court has given directions that political parties should not give tickets to people with criminal record and in case under unavoidable circumstances a ticket is given to a person with criminal record, the party should explain the circumstances under which the ticket is given.

The court further stated that the parties should publish in paper about the criminal record of the candidates to whom they have given tickets.