283 official candidates in Tamil Nadu face criminal charges

As many as 157 (16%) candidates face charges for serious offences such as murder, attempt to murder, theft, crimes against women, etc. The self-sworn affidavits of 997 out of 1107 candidates contesting from major political parties were analysed. 

Five candidates — T Ramachandran (CPI), KPP Samy (DMK), R Hariharan (PMK), R Kalidass (PMK) and M Palaniyandi (DMK) — have charges related to murder against them. Eight candidates have charges related to crimes against women. 

Dr Sudarshan Padmanabhan, coordinator for TN Election Watch, said the high number of candidates with criminal charges points to a lack of governance. “A candidate with a criminal charge has 22% more chances of getting elected. In a constituency with lower socio-economic strata, which faces law and order issues, a powerful goon has more control than the state machinery. These are the people who are elected and in many cases, they have a criminal charge,” said this academician from IIT Madras.

Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, which was involved in this analysis, said voters must think about a candidate’s criminal charge before voting. “We plan to create awareness among the voters by releasing more information,” he said. 

Dr Swarna Rajagopalan, political analyst, founder of Prajnya Trust, said candidates with criminal cases should be disqualified until cleared of all charges. “When candidates charged with gender-based violence or murder are allowed to contest and represent the people whom they have victimised — what kind of a message does it send?” she queried. 

Prof A Marx, writer and political activist, says “The nature of the crime should be distinguished. Some candidates like anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) may have thousands of cases against him, including sedition, as he opposed the Kudankulam nuclear project. But his case is different from a candidate who has been be charged with murder. We need to differentiate between these charges, before imposing a ban.”