The paper briefs views on elections and politics inheriting criminalization. The misuse of money power, mafia power, muscle power giving rise to corruption, criminalization, communalism and casteism has been discussed. The inadequate working of the legislature in resolving issues, particularly criminalization in politics fragments the introduction. The paper emphasises on electoral reforms and basics of electoral system i.e. manufacturing of electoral rolls, foolproof voter ID to deal with rigging and impersonation issues. Transformation such as introduction of electronic voting machines, lowering of voting age has been enumerated. The minimization of possibility of nexus of politicians and government officials in organised crimes has been stated. Powers of Election Commission, issues and challenges before it and methods of free and fair elections, lowering of heavy cost of elections and election campaigns are included. Politicians with criminal charges are named. In the ultimate analysis, the objective of all electoral laws is to provide the Nation with a true and a corruption free representative who provides good governance. A short assessment on the current situation along with suggestions are described in the end. The purpose basically is to generate a National debate and a discussion agenda through the paper.
Electoral Reforms, Party Politics, India
