New Delhi: The Lok Sabha election results seem to indicate that corruption and criminal records of candidates were not an issue for the voters this time.
Candidates accused of graft, money laundering and even terrorism in cases registered with the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and National Investigation Agency, have won by margins running into lakhs of votes.
Terror accused
The most controversial candidate this election was the BJP’s ‘Sadhvi’ Pragya Singh Thakur, a key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, in which six people were killed. Thakur, who is facing trial on terror charges, contested against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, and won by over 3.6 lakh votes.
This is the first instance when a national party has given a ticket to a candidate accused of terrorism.
Thakur has also figured in investigations into several other cases of alleged Hindutva extremism.
According to the Anti-Terrorism Squad charge sheet, Thakur was part of meetings of radical activists from 2006 onwards, where plans to target the Muslim community were discussed. Thakur allegedly took charge of finding a person to execute the Malegaon attack.
The charge sheet also mentions that the motorcycle in which the bomb in Malegaon was planted belonged to Thakur.
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Corruption-accused
Karti P. Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, contested from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu against BJP’s H. Raja, and won by over 3.5 lakh votes.
Karti is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case, for allegedly receiving kickbacks to ensure Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance for the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006, when his father was the union finance minister. He allegedly also facilitated the payment of bribes.
According to the ED, Karti’s company Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd received Rs 26 lakh for getting an out-of-the-way FIPB approval.
Similarly, former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK, a key accused in the Aircel-Maxis case, who contested from Chennai Central against PMK’s S.R. Sam Paul, won by over 3.1 lakh votes.
The charge sheet filed in the case accused Maran of criminal conspiracy and making illegal monetary gain for himself in the deal.
According to investigators, it is alleged that Maran entered into a criminal conspiracy with T. Ananda Krishnan, owner of the Malaysian company Maxis, and coerced C. Sivasankaran, owner of Aircel, to sell his shares to the former, allegedly in return for investments in the Marans’ Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd.
Two other DMK leaders who had been accused of corruption but were acquitted — A. Raja and Kanimozhi — have also won by big margins. Raja, one of the main accused in the 2G scam who was acquitted in 2017, won by over 1.2 lakh votes from the Nilgiris constituency while Kanimozhi, who was also acquitted in the 2G case in 2017, won from Thoothukudi by over 93,000 votes.
The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum, which were scrapped by the top court on 2 February 2012.
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Murder-accused
Afzal Ansari, a candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh and brother of don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, won the Ghazipur seat in UP by over one lakh votes, defeating union minister and sitting MP Manoj Sinha.
While his brother Mukhtar, who is currently in jail, has over a dozen cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping — including the 2005 killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai — against him, Afzal too has a criminal record.
According to his affidavit filed with Election Commission of India, Afzal has five cases of murder, criminal conspiracy, assault on public servant, and attempt to murder registered against him. He, however, has not been convicted in any case.
Meanwhile, in what was touted as a battle between the wives of two musclemen in Bihar’s Siwan, Kavita Singh, wife of Ajay Singh, defeated Mohammad Shahabuddin’s wife Heena Shahab by 1.1 lakh votes. Neither Kavita nor Heena have any criminal cases registered against them.
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