It is distressing to know that in the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls, more than 170 candidates have criminal cases against them including murder charges and 137 of them contesting from 37 seats have been booked for serious non bailable offences.
While the criminals and politicians are incorrigible, the fact that so many criminals are contesting in the election only point to the fact that Election Commission of India has become a toothless body. It is merely functioning as an administrator of election rather than a constitutional body, which is aware of it's role and responsibilities to conduct elections in a free and fair manner, which means that criminals should not be allowed to contest.
Just like the judiciary, election commission is also a constitutional body, with inherent powers which may not be in the rule book but can be exercised according to the exigencies .
However, election commissioners are just retired bureaucrats, who are accustomed to toe the dictates of politicians and who mostly consider their personal priorities and career interests in taking any decision.
The criminals who are allowed to contest elections have made the Indian election process a mockery and election commission is fully responsible for this dismal scenario.
Election commissioners have the inherent powers to cleanse the election system and they can certainly ban those from contesting elections, against whom criminal charges have been admitted in the court
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