Criminal charges against 29 candidates in Arunachal Pradesh, CM richest: Report

New Delhi: As many as 29 (16 per cent) of total 184 candidates contesting the Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh have declared criminal cases against themselves as compared to nine (6 per cent) in 2014, reveals a report by election watchdog - Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh is the richest candidate in the fray with total assets of worth Rs 163 crore while Congress candidate Dayum Para has declared zero assets.

As many as 26 (14 per cent) candidates have declared criminal charges of serious in nature in 2019 as against seven (5 per cent) in the last elections, when 148 candidates had contested, as per the report released on Thursday.

Party-wise, 12 per cent -- seven out of 60 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contestants -- have declared criminal cases while it is 20 per cent (nine of 46 candidates) of Congress, 27 per cent (eight of 30 candidates) of National Peoples` Party (NPP), 13 per cent (two of 15 candidates) of Janata Dal-United (JD-U), 8 per cent (one of 12 candidates) of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and 9 per cent (one of 11) independents have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Similarly, seven per cent of BJP candidates, 20 per cent of Congress candidates, 27 per cent of NPP candidates, 13 per cent of JD- U, eight per cent of JD- S and nine per cent of independents have declared serious criminal cases against them.

Out of the 184 candidates, 131(71 per cent) are `crorepatis` while the number was 88 (60 per cent) in 2014.

JD- S candidate Takam Paleng has declared lowest asset of Rs 5,000.

Among the major parties, 54 (90 per cent) of BJP candidates are crorepaties while the number is 30 (65 per cent) for Congress, 21(70 per cent) for NPP, 11(73 per cent) for JD(U), seven (58 per cent) for JD(S) and five (46 per cent) of 11 independent candidates.

The average of assets per candidate is Rs 9.86 crores while it was Rs5.04 crores in 2014.

Congress candidate Nabam Tuki has declared highest liabilities of Rs 20 crores.

None of the candidates has declared their Income Tax return details while only two have declared their PAN details.

As per section 10 (26) of IT Act 1961, a member of Scheduled Tribe residing in the specific area of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura or Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir is exempt from paying Income Tax.

As many as eight (37 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th, while 106 (58 per cent) have declared having educational qualification of graduate or above. Two said they are literate while five are illiterate.

As many as 35 (19 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 130 (71 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. 

There are 19 (10 per cent) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

There are 11 (6 per cent) female candidates in the fray against five (3 per cent) in 2014.

As many as 50 candidates in 2019 polls are those who are incumbent MLAs.

ADR said it has analysed 47 of these candidates while three could not be analysed due to the unavailability of properly scanned affidavits of 2014.

The growth in average assets of re-contesting MLAs is Rs 7.96 crore - an increase of 76 per cent.