The Election Commission has set a deadline for candidates contesting the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council to make their criminal records public. Candidates will have to do this three times before the election.
The Commission wrote a letter to all national and state-level political parties earlier this week. In this, the Commission has said that candidates contesting the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Council elections will have to make public the pending criminal cases on three occasions. The members of the Legislative Council are elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly of the States.
According to the letter of the Commission, the first two days of withdrawal of nomination will be made public between the third and fourth day of the second time, criminal information. For the third time, information has to be released on the fifth to the sixth day before the date of voting.
Similar provisions are also for candidates contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The purpose of these provisions is to let the voters know about the background of the people contesting the elections.