The bench said the petition has relied on a March 2 verdict of the apex court which had ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and ECs will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee, comprising the prime minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and the CJI, to maintain the "purity of election".
Only 18 Bharatiya Janata Party legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period
The Association for Democratic Reforms has complained against six major political parties for not appointing Public Information Officers.
Of the 788 candidates contesting 89 seats in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly polls, 211 are 'crorepatis', with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party accounting for 79 such nominees, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report on Thursday.
'Justice B V Nagarathna has excellent human qualities and is a stickler for the law.'
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting 88 seats out of the total 89, tops this list among major political parties in the fray with 36 per cent of its candidates having criminal cases. Thirty per cent of its candidates are facing serious cases such as murder, rape, assault, kidnapping, among others, the ADR said in its report. The number of candidates having criminal cases fielded by the AAP is 32.
Donations from corporates to the national parties increased by 109 per cent between FY 2017-18 and 2018-19, said an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO working for bringing in transparency in electoral politics.
According to the analysis, 37 of the 40 BJP MLAs and 29 of the 31 Congress legislators are crorepatis.
The murder of Atiq and his brother and the police encounter with his son have raised many questions about the propriety of how crime is tackled by the Yogi government. But Yogi knows he has the support of the people who are fed up with crime holding the state to ransom for decades, asserts Ramesh Menon.
As many as 1,500, or 19 per cent, of all candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls, face criminal cases, according to an analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The Congress raised Rs 918.03 crore, of which 383.26 crore came through the debt instrument, which can be purchased from select branches of State Bank of India and donated to any political party.
Total of 59 seats spread across 6 states and one Union Territory will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 12.
The Congress declared Rs 526 crore as income from unknown sources which is 15.57 per cent of the total income of the national parties from unknown sources, the ADR said.
As many as 13 (93%) are crorepatis with their average assets pegged at Rs 3.93 crores, the report said.
The richest candidate in the first phase is from Chevella. The poorest candidate is also contesting from the same constituency in Telengana!
59 constituencies across 7 states and one Union Territory will go to polls in the seventh phase on May 19.
943 candidates are contesting 71 seats spread across 9 states.
An analysis of the declarations made by these MLAs reveals that 37 have declared serious charges including those related to rape, attempt to murder and crime against women.
Nineteen political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, received over Rs 1,100 crore during assembly polls in five states and Union territories in 2021 and spent over Rs 500 crore, a big chunk of which went towards advertisements and travel expenses for star campaigners, a study said on Friday.
There are a total 623 candidates in the fray, and affidavits of eight of them could not be analysed because they were either badly scanned or incomplete, the ADR said.
A breakdown of candidates in the first five stages of the election by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch offers a fascinating insight into the declarations made by this year's Lok Sabha hopefuls.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered a landmark verdict with regard to convicted MPs and MLAs. The judgment has ruled that a convicted elected representative cannot continue in office and the conviction will lead to instant disqualification of the elected representative. The judgement is important considering the fact that India has 1,460 sitting MP's and MLA's with a criminal background.
In a new report, the ADR said the BJP declared a total income of Rs 3,623.28 crore during the financial year 2019-20, but spent only 45.57 per cent (Rs 1,651.022 crore) of it.
Professor Sastry says in this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa that every political party appears to be taking a shortcut and hence there is so much criminlisation in politics.
About 42 per cent ministers in Karnataka self-declared criminal cases pending against them in their affidavits filed during the last held assembly elections in 2008.
Only three of the 188 candidates analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Nagaland Election Watch have criminal cases pending against them. This is a refreshing change as elections in India often witness hordes of tainted politicians contesting for the coveted seats.
The petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms alleged that two political parties -- Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have violated the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act by taking donations from government companies and foreign sources, which is prohibited under both legislations.
Out of the 69 candidates with declared criminal cases, 30 have declared serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, reports Vicky Nanjappa
The Association for Democratic Reforms, an non-government organisation working for electoral reforms, while supporting Election Commission's order to seize unaccounted cash in poll-bound states, has noted that legitimate business transactions based on cash should not suffer.
Latest records show that only one MLA in the newly-elected Gujarat assembly spent more on the election expenses than the limit specified by the Election Commission, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Crores received by the Congress between 2005 and 2009 are unaccounted for, the BJP follows suit. Vicky Nanjappa reports
There has been a national outcry seeking harsher laws for rapists in India. As the outrage grows against the heinous incident of gangrape in Delhi and Parliament discusses the issue, Vicky Nanjappa takes a look at the background of our lawmakers (members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assembly) with respect to rape cases and other crimes against women based on their self-sworn affidavits.
Data put out by the Karnataka Election Watch (KEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms analysed 179 outgoing MLAs who are contesting again in the 2013 Karnataka Assembly elections.
The Election Commission has rejected a demand to make mandatory the filing of affidavits by candidates in the Presidential poll disclosing their assets and criminal record, if any.
Balbir Singh Verma, an independent candidate from Chopal constituency in Himachal Pradesh, has declared the highest income among all candidates -- Rs. 1.41 crore -- in his income tax returns, according to a report prepared by the Himachal Pradesh Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms.
During the last assembly elections held in Himachal Pradesh in 2007, only 16 per cent of the total candidates were crorepatis. According to a report just released by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Himachal Pradesh Election Watch, today 33 per cent of the total 445 candidates are crorepatis.
The Indian National Congress leads the political pack with most number of candidates who will contest the Tripura Assembly elections to be held in March.
A full bench of the Central Information Commission on Monday passed a historic judgment, stating that political parties would under the ambit of the Right to Information Act). While the CIC verdict was made about a case connected to the Communist Party of India, fresh complaints may be filed against all other parties before the CIC to secure a similar verdict and put them under the ambit of the RTI.
There are 57 members with criminal background, one with even charges of rape, and 134 crorepatis (74 per cent) in the newly-elected Gujarat assembly, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-political group aiming at governmental and electoral reforms. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
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