Patna: Lamenting that the politics in India was getting sick day-by-day because of rampant entry of criminal elements in the fray among others, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India J M Lyngdoh on October 8 said he would never join politics in his life.

Addressing a function organised by Humlog, a citizens' forum, Lyngdoh listed three factors - entry of a large number of criminal elements in the fray, growing incidents of defection in the parties and unchecked use of huge sum of money by candidates and parties to win the polls - because of which politics was getting sick every day.

"I will never join politics in life because I do not want to waste time by participating in the brand of politics currently we have," he said.

The election laws have failed to check the entry of criminal elements in all the parties. The law says that if somebody has been convicted of any heinous crime like rape and murder he/she should not be allowed to contest polls during the period of conviction. But, in our country, conviction is very difficult to obtain, and because of this it is difficult to prohibit entry of anti-socials in polls, he added.

Banning entry of criminal elements in politics has been discussed at many forum including among the political parties but no solution has been found so far, he regretted, and suggested only voters could show them (the candidates having criminal antecedents) the doors by not voting for them.

Lyngdoh said that defection in parties was another factor contributing to the deterioration of political standards.

PTI