The Election Commission on Tuesday blamed political parties for not preventing candidates with criminal background from contesting elections.

"The parties lack political will," Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy said speaking informally to journalists in New Delhi.

"Even though we have made these recommendations [to prevent people with criminals antecedents from contesting elections] more than once to the government no action has been taken," he added.

"It is very unfortunate that there is no political consensus in this regard," Murthy said.
                                                    
The CEC added that the recent polls in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana were very challenging but the Election Commission was successful in ensuring "free and fair polls despite local problems."

Murthy, who would be demitting office on May 15, said that even though the Commission wanted to hold a one-day poll in Bihar, it could not because of lack of adequate para-military forces.

"In Bihar we had to take care of factors like caste politics and criminality. We took steps to ensure that people were free to exercise their franchise. By and large we succeeded," he said.

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The Complete Election coverage