How are political reform counterproductive?

Any legal change becomes counter-productive law when it results adversely.
For example, many states have banned people who have more than two children from contesting Panchayat elections. This had resulted in denial of political opportunity to many poor and women, which was not intended.
Generally, laws that seek to ban something are not successful in politics, instead laws that give political actors incentives to do good things are more successful. The best laws are those which empower people to carry out democratic reforms.
The Right to Information Act is a good example of law that empowers people to find out what is happening in the government, and acts as a watchdog of the democracy. Such law helps to control corruption and supplements the existing laws that banned corruption and imposed strict penalties.