Patna, Oct. 3: Criminal antecedents of the people's representatives to the state legislature are nothing new to Bihar and the coming election is a witness to it.

Once known as a den of criminals-turned-politicians, Bihar's crime fever cooled down a little bit with Nitish Kumar taking over the reins of the state in 2005. Better for some time, not has crime reared its head, persons with criminal backgrounds are yet again trying to make their way into the law-making body of the state.

In the run-up to the announcement of the 2015 Assembly elections, chief minister Nitish challenged the NDA not to field candidates with dubious backgrounds. As the poll lists of the respective parties, NDA and the Grand Alliance gradually surfaced, it became clear that no party lived up to the task. Not even Nitish's JDU. Many parties have even fielded wives of dons when they found it inconvenient to field the strongmen, many of whom are convicted in different cases.

Former MLA Randhir Yadav serving 14 years in jail for murder continues to be wooed by the parties.

His wife, Poonam Yadav, is the sitting JDU MLA from Khagaria and this time again, she has fielded from the constituency.

In the last Assembly polls, the BJP - then in alliance with the JDU - fielded Munni Devi from Buxar district's Shahpur. She is a relative of a local don and this time, the party has fielded the don as he had not been convicted.

Don-turned-politician former MP Surajbhan got convicted in a murder case but still his party, the LJP, did not desert him. His wife was fielded as the LJP candidate from the Munger parliamentary seat. This Assembly polls, Surajbhan has managed to get two of his relatives fielded as LJP candidates.

According to a report prepared by Bihar Election Watch today, on the basis of affidavits submitted during the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of the polls, around 30 per cent of the 583 candidates contesting the 49 seats have criminal records.

Around 22 per cent of the candidates are facing serious criminal charges, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crime against women. The JDU candidate from Warsaliganj in Nawada district, Pradeep Kumar, is accused in four murder cases.

There are also BJP, JDU and BSP candidates who have murder cases registered against them. Eleven Independent candidates face charges of crime against women, rape and dowry deaths.

At least two candidates have declared cases against themselves related to causing communal disharmony in their nomination papers.

Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular candidate from Tarapur (Munger), a proclaimed leader of the Koeri caste, Shakuni Choudhary is charged with defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion.

The JDU candidate from Vibhutipur (Samastipur), Ram Balak Singh, has mentioned in his affidavit that he is charged with promo-ting enmity between two different groups on ground of religion, race, residence, birth, etc.

The BJP's Teghra (Begusarai) Assembly candidate, Ram Lakhan Singh, is charged under Section 399 of IPC -making preparations to commit dacoity.

The presence of criminals in Bihar's political space is an old trend.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, several politicians have been charged of using criminals to terrorise their opponents and voters. However, during the 1990s and even after 2000, the criminals started to enter the poll fray themselves. They went on to win as well and the period saw thepolitical rise of the likes of dons such as Pappu Yadav, Anand Mohan, Mohammad Shahabuddin and others, many of whom are still in the talks. Pappu has even floated a party of his own, the Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik).

A senior leader, who went to pacify a known don for electoral gains in 2005, remembered an old saying, " Hamam mein sab nange hain (In this world, all of us are naked)."