In India, criminal accused and undertrials seem to get a free pass when it comes to contesting elections and positioning themselves as people’s representatives and leaders. As blasphemous as the idea might seem, it is unfortunately something even the Supreme Court can't meddle with.

This situation may seem a lot gloomy, but the fact of the matter is that the situation may not see any considerable change, as long as political parties keep offering election tickets to individuals with criminal cases against them, as well as until voters fail to make informed choices when it comes to picking their representatives.

Don’t believe how common or widespread this practice is in the Indian political scene? Read about these five people who contested elections despite having criminal charges against them, or serving jail time as undertrials.

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He is a don-turned-politician from Mokama who is contesting this year on an RJD ticket in the upcoming Bihar elections. Popularly known as Chhote Sarkar in the area, Lalu Prasad Yadav had gotten him arrested in a kidnap and murder case years ago. Even now, Singh is in Bihar’s Beur jail under an UAPA case which was filed against him after weapons including AK-47 were found from his residence in 2019.

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Remember the guy from 2017 who was filmed lynching a migrant worker in Rajasthan and setting him on fire? Yes, that guy reportedly got a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha 2019 general elections from Rampur on a ticket from Uttar Pradesh’s Navnirman Sena. With charges under nine sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act against him, he was lodged at the Jodhpur Central Jail as an undertrial when he was given the ticket.

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When news broke that Mr Sudrendran had surfaced as Kerala's leading 2019 Lok Sabha candidate with 240 criminal cases against himself, many found it hard to believe. However, it turned out that the news was in fact true, and that the BJP candidate from Pathanamthitta parliamentary constituency had topped the list of those with criminal records contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, followed by Congress’ Dean Kuriakose with 204 cases.

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Now, if you thought this is something that came into trend only recently, you’re wrong. More than a decade ago in 2009, gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli was reported to have contested Assembly elections from jail as a Akhil Bharatiya Sena candidate from the new Byculla Assembly constituency. Gawli had been in Arthur Road jail since September 2008 under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in connection with an extortion case.

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Who doesn’t know about the infamous Bihar leader and former Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav, aka Rajesh Ranjan. The head of Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) which was formed by him in 2015, is all set to contest the upcoming Bihar polls under a front called the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) with Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party wherein he aims to present himself as the CM candidate. It is a fact well known that in 2008, Pappu Yadav was sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the killing of a rival politician Ajit Sarkar in 1998. He had continued to contest elections before finally walking out of jail on bail in 2017.

This is perhaps the first thing that needs to change about Indian politics - criminals trying to be our representatives and leaders.

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