Nat'l, state parties fielded 467 candidates facing criminal charges: EC

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Awadhesh Narain Singh during the oath ceremony at council annex, in Patna, on Sunday. Pic/PTI

Out of a total of 1,197 candidates with criminal antecedents who contested the recently-held Bihar assembly elections, 467 were fielded by recognised national and state parties, according to the Election Commission. The remaining 730 were either fielded by registered but unrecognised parties or had contested the polls as independents. A total of 3,733 candidates including 371 women were in the fray in the three-phase elections, as per EC data.

According to data made available by the Election Commission (EC) here and the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, 156 cases were registered against "organisers" of rallies and meetings of various leaders and candidates for violating COVID-19 norms. Cases were registered against organisers as they had sought permission to hold rallies or meetings in which following health guidelines was mandatory, explained an official.

Ahead of the three-phase elections, the poll panel had made it clear that violation of COVID-19 guidelines during election period would be deemed as a violation of section 144 of the CrPC. The section of the Criminal Procedure Code allows local authorities to issue orders to prevent and address urgent cases of apprehended danger or nuisance. Certain sections of the National Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Act were also used. The local authorities also relied on section 188 of the IPC to deal with cases of violation of health guidelines.

'Assets of T'gana CM, his friends are increasing'

Slamming the Telangana government, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said that the assets of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his friends were increasing but the assets of the state government were decreasing. He said that BJP has come up with an 'aarop patra' which lists 60 failures of the state government during the last six years. "The assets of CM K Chandrashekar Rao and his friends are increasing but the assets of Telangana are decreasing. BJP has come up with an 'aarop patra' which features 60 failures of the state government during the last six years," the Union minister said.

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