Of the 17 Members of Parliament (MP) elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from Telangana, 10 of them have police cases registered against them, said Hyderabad-based Forum For Good Governance, a social service organisation that focuses on government accountability. This is based on the analysis of the affidavits of these MPs submitted to the Election Commission.
With 52 cases, BJP’s winning candidate Bapurao Soyam has the highest number of cases. This is closely followed by Congress's A Revanth Reddy, with 42 cases.
Most of the cases registered against Soyam, who won from Adilabad district, are from the 2015-16 Lambada community conflict. But the most notable case against him is for an alleged passport fraud, which is over 12 years old. In the case from 2007, which is still pending, Soyam is accused of cheating and forgery and using a woman to impersonate his wife for a passport.
Congress’s A Revanth Reddy, who won the Malkajgiri seat and has the second highest number of cases against him, is accused in the 2015 cash for votes scam that was caught on camera while he was with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He is accused of offering Rs 5 crore to an independent candidate to vote for a TDP candidate in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council polls. He was charge-sheeted in the case by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB). The role of the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is also questioned in the case.
The winning candidate with the next highest number of cases is Komatireddy Venkat Reddy of the Congress with 14 cases. He has won from Bhongir district.
While three of the four MPs elected from the BJP have cases registered against them, all three Congress MPs elected have cases against them. Of the nine MPs elected from the TRS, two have cases registered against them. Asaduddin Owaisi, the four-time MP from Hyderabad and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief, has five cases registered against him, mostly for alleged hate speeches.
The Forum is of the view that voters do not bother about the criminal records of their candidates. They also said that the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, should be amended to bar the entry of people with criminal records from contesting elections.