EC revises advertising timeline of candidates' criminal records ahead of Bihar polls

Ahead of the Bihar polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI), on Friday, has streamlined the publicity of criminal antecedents by candidates in newspapers or TV channels. As per the revised timeline, ECI has issued a timeline for three publicities, in a bid to help voters to make an informed choice. ECI has also mandated political candidates and parties to publicize criminal records of 'uncontested winner candidates'. The poll-bound Bihar has already seen the first round of poll rallies by RJD, BJP, and JD(U).

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ECI: Revised timeline for publicizing criminal records

• 1st publicity: Within first 4 days of last date of withdrawal
• 2nd publicity: Within 5-8th day of last date of withdrawal
• 3rd publicity: From 9th day till two days prior to polls

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SC orders publishing politicians' criminal history

In 2018, a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) had asked political parties to publicize criminal antecedents of contestants in news media. Earlier in February, the SC ordered political parties to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections along with the reasons for fielding such candidates, as per reports. The judgment is applicable to parties both at Central and State levels.

SC had mandated that the information should be published in a local and a national newspaper, as well as the parties’ social media, handles, as per reports. The advertisement must be published either within 48 hours of the selection of candidates or less than two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever is earlier, ruled the SC. India recorded an increase of 44% in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2019 - which amounts to 233 of the 539 sitting MPs in the current Lok Sabha.

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Bihar assembly elections 

Bihar will go to polls amid the COVID-19 pandemic in October-November, with the EC releasing guidelines for conducting polls. As BJP lost in Delhi, all eyes are set on former party chief Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar -led JDU. While Kumar faces strong anti-incumbency, RJD - Bihar's main opposition has lost the lustre it once had due to the absence of it's chief Lalu Prasad Yadav - with his son Tejashwi, most likely to be named as CM hopeful.  Currently, the JDU-BJP combination rules the state with 131 seats, while the RJD-Congress opposition has 111 seats.

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