1. Fairness at Play: Introducing Electoral Reforms to
reduce the influence of money and muscle power
in politics
VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY(VIT), VELLORE, TN.
JATIN RELAN
PRANJAL JAIN
KHUSHBU AGRAWAL
UTKARSH SINGH
SHUBHAM VASHISHT
उमंग
1
2. The people of a nation have the fundamental right – those whom
they elect must govern. When they don’t, this fundamental right is
criminally violated. Money and muscle power are still pervasive in our
elections. Electoral reforms have been delayed. The arithmetic of
elections is still disproportionately influenced by cynical
considerations of caste and creed. The existing system operates to
keep people with integrity and talent outside the democratic process.
INDIA is the world’s
largest democracy
but the irony is that
it stands average
when it comes to
the Implementation
and Quality of
Democracy.
INTRODUCTION
2
INDIA has
700 Million
Voters &
1 Million Polling
Booths
3. CRIMINALIZATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
(Restricting Fair Play During Elections)
•26 candidates
Congress
•24 candidates
Samajwadi party
•20 candidates
BJP
U.P. State Elections (Feb 2012)
CRIMINAL RECORDS
Implementation of this rule will reduce
wastage of money and will reduce its
misuse and simultaneously will also reduce
the use of muscle power and will promote
fair elections.
Implementation of 25% rule
• No political party should sponsor or provide
ticket to a candidate for contesting elections if he
was convicted by any court for any criminal
offence or if the courts have framed criminal
charges against him.
• The law should specifically provide that if any
party violates this provision, the candidate
involved should be liable to be disqualified and
the party deregistered and derecognized
forthwith.
• If 25% of the candidates of a party have been
proven guilty before or during elections then
that party will be completely dissolved and will
be debarred from contesting elections for that
current year.
• If 50% of the candidates of a party have proven
criminal cases against them then the party will
be debarred from contesting elections for the
next 5 years.
PROBLEM
Almost all the political parties have a
large number of candidates with criminal
cases.
SOLUTION
3
4. INCOME DIFFERENCES AMONG PARTIES
(Restricting Uniformity in Elections)
PROBLEM
It has been noted that there are a lot of
variations and differences in the incomes of
different political parties which restricts
uniformity in elections and promotes unwanted
expenditure and criminalization.
SOLUTION
Election fund
• Creation of
separate Election
Fund with an
annual
contribution of
1% of the total
turn over by every
registered
company of India
to the Election
Commission India.
• Donation through
any external
sources must be
strictly prohibited
Subsides for recognized
parties
• One rent-free telephone
with subscriber trunk
dialing facility.
• Every candidate gets a
specified quantity of
petrol/ diesel during an
election campaign
• A specified quantity of
paper
• voter identity slip
• postal stamps
• five copies of electoral roll
in constituency
• An amplifier system for
every assembly
constituency/segment of
Lok Sabha.
Limitless election funds lead to
expensive rallies and publicity
stunts, unwanted expenditure
and criminalization
4
5. Flow of Election Funds
Election
Commission
India
Amount Allocated to EC State =(Total Election Funds
earned from companies /Total No. of Constituencies
in India)X Total No. of Constituencies in a particular
state
Election
Commissio
n State 1
(Amount 1)
Election
Commission
State 2
(Amount 2)
Amount allocated to each political party=Amount2/Total No.
of State Parties
Political
Part 1
Political
Party 2
Political
Party
3…….n-1
Political
Party “n”
Election
Commission
State
3……….28
Election
Commission
State 29
(Amount 29)
Party Account
1. Creating a joint account of the
political party.
2. Funds being transferred from EC
India to State EC as per the given
criteria.
3. State EC would then transfer the
money into each state party’s
account equally.
4. Political Parties to allocate funds for
different election purposes on their
sole discretion.
5. Personal accounts of the candidates
will be monitored on a regular basis
in order to avoid any mishandling of
money.
STATE FUNDING
Implementing the concept of state funding in
elections would bring in an element of equality
It would help remove the disadvantages faced by
parties which represent the socially and
economically weaker sections and which often
have limited access to bigger donors.
State Funding Concept would be
effectively implemented by
1. Banning donation in any form
given to the parties by individual
or by any organization.
2. Opening an account for each
party which will be directly
monitored by the SC and by the
Election Commission.
5
6. Donations received by political parties during
Lok Sabha elections (2007-2009 Statistics)
DONATIONS
PROBLEM
Political Parties take/receive limitless
donations for election purposes which leads
to more and more crimes and leads to new
ways of using the loopholes of the system in
a negative way.
SOLUTION
• Banning donation in any form given to the
parties by individuals. All transactions will be
done through the common Party Account.
• Declaration of assets/ liabilities by electoral
candidates through their tax return file at
least 5 months prior to elections.
• Press release of all assets/liabilities of
electoral candidates on an annual basis.
• Stringent punishment for concealing or
providing wrong information on minimum of
two years imprisonment and removing the
alternative punishment of imposing a fine
upon the candidate and a column requiring
candidates to disclose their annual declared
income for tax purposes as well as their
profession.
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7. TIME BOUNDATION ON JUDICIAL VERDICT ON POLITICAL PARTIES
1. Prioritize Criminal Cases against Political
Parties and their candidates over all other
cases.
2. Panel of 5 Judges in SC and each of the HCs
primarily monitoring the cases against
Political Parties.
3. Shuffling the Panel every 6 months.
4. Shuffling of any Judge would be postponed
until he/she rests all the ongoing Political
Cases.
5. Time restriction of 24 months for the final
verdict on all political cases.0%
50%
2004 2009
Lok Sabha Criminal Record
2004
2009
Time Division –Courts’ Verdict
Introducing this reform will avoid the
unnecessary dragging of cases against
political parties and would ensure the
intake of deserving and ethical
candidates.
Fast
Track
• 6 Months
• +1 months to appeal to next higher court
High
Court
• 7 Months
• + 2 months to appeal to next higher court
Supreme
Court
• 8 months
• Final verdict
Members with
criminal cases give
rise to criminalization
in politics.
PROBLEM
There isn’t any time restriction for the trial
of criminal cases against the candidates of
any political party. Due to this the
candidate with unproven criminal charges
still gets eligible to contest in the elections.
SOULTION
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8. FORMATION OF SECRET PANEL
PROBLEM:
During Campaigning, political parties come
up with the failures and crimes of opposing
parties and leaders and tend to malign the
name of the opposition by putting false
allegations on them which many a times stop
eligible candidates from contesting elections.
SOLUTION
1. Maligning the other parties’ name should be
banned.
2. Rather a secret panel should be set up by the
Election Commission which reports all the
crimes under the name of the party and its
candidates.
3. And this data should be released every year. It
should contain all the crimes committed by the
candidates of the parties whether reported or
not and irrespective of being proven guilty.
4. It should separately categorize crimes like
which have been reported and proven guilty,
reported and pending court orders, reported
and not proven guilty and also some
unreported crimes which have been
exclusively recorded by this particular panel.
5. This would discourage the practice of
maligning one another’s names and would also
help in putting a check on crimes committed
by these white collar people. Eventually, it
would help in creating a better election
atmosphere.
PARTY INC BJP BSP SP CPM NCP JD(U)
Candidates
Analysed
6322 5605 4739 2096 1163 1103 1005
MPs/MLAs
Analysed
2451 1681 430 418 520 225 272
Candidates with
Criminal Charges
(CCC)
1407 1357 900 579 320 214 281
% CCC 22 24 19 28 28 19 28
Candidates with
Serious Charges (CSC)
605 559 470 293 135 93 150
% CSC 10 10 10 14 12 8 15
MPs/MLAs with
Criminal Charges
(MCC)
527 520 149 180 111 67 120
MPs/MLAs with
Serious Criminal
Charges (MSC)
205 221 76 92 46 24 75
% MCC 22 31 35 43 21 30 45
% MSC 8 13 18 22 9 11 28
Avg. Assets of
Candidates
(in Rs.Crores)
4.32 1.79 1.25 1.52 0.2731 1.56 1.33
Avg. Assets of
MPs/MLAs
(in Rs.Crores)
5.81 2.88 2.73 4.16 21.21 3.56 3.61
Avg. Assets of
Candidates with
Criminal Charges
(in Rs.Crores)
7.98 3.40 2.56 4.12 0.2091 3.31 0.8549
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9. REFORMS IN EVM REGARDING
NEUTRAL AND NEGATIVE VOTING
Negative and Neutral Voting is closely linked with votes
being required to win an election.
This method of election is designed to achieve important
objectives i.e., the negative vote is intended to put moral
pressure on political parties not to put forward candidates
with undesirable record i.e., criminals, corrupt elements
and persons with unsavory background and the neutral
vote would enable a voter to reject all the candidates in
the constituency if he does not find them suitable.
SOLUTION
• Implementation of the rule ’49 O’ through EVMs.
• Votes cast for the ’49 O’ option should also be
taken into account.
• Voter verifiable EVM.
• EVM should provide an option of ‘Negative Voting’
against any party.
50%+1 RULE
PROBLEM
Party getting maximum number of votes wins
irrespective of the percentage of people
supporting them. Other Parties are not taken
into consideration even if they loose by
marginal votes.
SOLUTION
• A candidate is declared winner if he gets 50%
of the total votes polled plus one otherwise re-
election would be conducted between the top
two contenders and the one who gets 50%+1
votes would be declared as the winner.
• This is to cut down or curtail the influence and
role played by caste factor in the electoral
process. There is hardly any constituency in
the country where anyone particular caste can
command more than 50% of the votes. This
means that a candidate has to carry with him
several castes and communities to succeed.
• Electronic surveillance and intelligence
gathering must be upgraded.
PROBLEM
1. Verbal Application for neutral voting can be
used in a wrong way
2. Voter has to vote for any one of the party
even if s/he doesn't find any candidate
deserving.
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10. CANDIDATE SELECTION PROCEDURE
• Any citizen of the country must get a minimum of 3000
signatures or thumb prints for contesting in the Vidhan Sabha
Elections(independently or from a party) and a minimum of
7000 signatures or thumb prints for contesting in the Lok
Sabha Elections(independently or from a party) from the
voters of that particular constituency.
• Applicants must submit a documented file consisting of all the
signatures and thumb prints of the supporting voters along
with their respective ‘Voter Id Card Numbers’.
• The candidates willing to contest the elections from a
particular party have to exclusively get the approval of that
party in order to further undergo the screening test.
• A screening committee will be created in all 29 states and in
centre consisting of former HC/SC Judges, IAS Officers and
retired Army Personnels.
• The screening committee would short list a maximum of 5
candidates from each constituency.
The criteria for selection of the candidates are as follows:
courageous, has a vision for bringing in systematic change in
that particular constituency.
understands all aspects and nuances of direct democracy
(Swaraj).
has learned opinions on broader range of issues .
has secular views.
popularity of all candidates, their thoughts on various public,
social and international issues .
The political affairs committee will take the decision on who
would be the candidate from a particular constituency.
Receiving of the Nominations
Shortlisting of the final candidates for screening
Screening committee will have One-on-One
interaction with all the applicants and inputs from
sources like
Journalists Reputed
Citizens
Active
Volunteers
And
more…..
Political Affairs committee after having one –on –
one interaction will declare the final candidate
who will contest the election.
The shortlisted candidates will then be screened based
on the criteria like their opinions on broader range of
issues ,popularity, understanding of different aspects
and nuances of direct democracy etc.
SOLUTION
PROBLEM
Nowadays, people entering into politics with serious
criminal charges like rape, extortion etc. is on the
rise. Country is in a need of those who are having a
vision to bring a change in the society so that it can
be pulled out from the depths of corruption and
wrong policies.
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SCREENING PROCESS
