The think tanks of the two major players in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, have put down their heads to reframe their poll strategies in the wake of the recent path breaking decisions by the judiciary.
All the parties are consulting constitutional and legal experts to examine in detail and interpret the verdict so that they can start afresh in accordance to the guidelines given. The three court directives- the first one on convicted MPs and MlAs and the second one restricting public representatives lodged in the jails and yet a third one imposing a stay on caste-based rallies, have sent shock waves among the political outfits in the state, the ruling Samajwadi Party, its betenoire, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the BJP and the Congress.
Though the court judgements have been widely appreciated by the politicians as well as the public, political observers are of the view that the judiciary had taken a historical step in purging the parliament and state legislatures. It has been seen that all the political parties give assurances just prior to elections, whether Vidhan Sabha or lok Sabha that they would not give tickets to candidates having a criminal record. However once the list of candidates is finalised the criteria of ticket distribution seems to change with criminalisation taking a back seat and winnability coming to the fore.
Political leaders have often argue that tainted candidates in their respective parties have had a change of heart and should therefore be given a chance. But the Court orders have certainly successfully put a check on the entry of tainted and criminals in the parliament and state legislature. Some of the parties having the largest number of candidates coming under the bracket specified by the Court have been compelled to start fresh thinking on tickets already given to such candidates. The SP and BSP have begun an exercise wherein they have asked the lok Sabha candidates to furnish a detailed list of the criminal cases against them.Apparently several candidates would be changed and replaced by new faces or those with a clean record.
The Congress as well as the BJP, which had so far delayed the process of identifying candidates for the lOk Sabha are now cautious of the court ruling and plan to give tikets taking into consideration the past history of the candidates.BJP national president Rajnath Singh had earlier stated that he was in favour of giving lok Sabha tickets to youth and would introduce new faces in a bid to galvanise the party ranks. The NaMo factor has already started giving sleepless nights to the political opponenets. Similarly Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi had also spelt out that he would consider a clean image and youth as one of the factors in giving lok Sabha tickets.
According to records of the total 403 legislators in UP, as many as 189 legislators have serious criminal cases ranging from robbery,murder,rape to kidnapping and extortion pending against them. Of all the cases pending 194 invite a minimum two year term in jail.
A study of the affidavits submitted by the MlAs to the Election Commission, 12 cases have been registered under the provisions of Section 153(A) of the Indian Penal Code for inciting violence, 21 under the Section 395 of the IPC for dacoity, four of rape, nine of loot, 15 of kidnapping and murder, 95 of attempted murder and 38 cases of murder. Of the 189 legislators facing serious charges a total number of 111 are from SP, 29 from BSP,25 from BJP and 13 from the Congress. The remaining are either Independentsor belong to other regional parties.