HYDERABAD, SEPT 1: Even as political parties blame each other for nurturing criminal elements in their ranks, a cross section of voters in Andhra Pradesh has come out with a list of ``potential candidates with criminal record'' and warned parties against fielding them in the coming polls.The unique exercise, involving seeking public views on the antecedents of political aspirants in their respective areas, was undertaken by a voluntary organisation `Lok Satta' headed by a senior IAS officer Dr N Jayaprakash Narayan who quit his job two years ago to work for ``democratic reforms''.Over 2,000 people across the state have responded to the appeal, given through print and electronic media, and named about 50 potential candidates with a criminal past.``We have informed the political parties concerned about the public perception of the potential candidates and details of their criminal background. If the parties fail to disown such elements in deference to people's wishes, we will make the names public,''Narayan said.Narayan, who had served as additional secretary to former Chief Minister late N T Rama rao and secretary to former state governor Krishan Kant before taking the plunge into the social movement, said most of the khalnayaks identified by the people belonged to the two main contenders for power in the state - the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress.The people were asked to identify and give details of potential candidates in their region based on criteria like past conviction by courts, chargesheets and history, Narayan said. The Lok Satta then constituted a high-power committee, comprising eminent citizens including former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court A Lakshman Rao, retired civil servants K R Venugopal, Narendra Luther and some retired judges, to screen and thoroughly examine the details sent by the people.The objective of the exercise was to involve people in purging politics of criminal elements and ushering in political and democratic reforms, hesaid.``This will not only make people more alert, but also serve as an effective check on parties," said Narayan.Lok Satta has also embarked on a massive awareness programme `election watch' on election-related matters like revision of electoral rolls, deletion of bogus voters and organising interactive meetings with leaders of various political parties to generate informed public debates.As part of this programme, it has proposed to conduct a televised debate between Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and state Congress president Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.The debate, to be patterned on the lines of the US presidential debate, would not only provide an opportunity for the parties to convey their message to the audiences but would also enable people to seek clarifications from leaders on matters of public importance, he said.Both Naidu and Reddy have consented to participate in the debate to be moderated by a person acceptable to both parties, Narayan said.
