Agartala, Feb 06, 2023, IANS

Agartala, Feb 6 (IANS): Out of the 259 candidates contesting the February 16 Tripura Assembly elections, 16 per cent (41) have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 17 per cent (45) are crorepatis.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, 17 per cent (22) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

According to the analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of all the 259 candidates, 8 per cent (21) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves against the 6 per cent (17) in 2018.

Of the total of 13 Congress candidates, 54 per cent (7), 30 per cent (13) of the 43 CPI-M candidates and 16 per cent (9) of the 55 BJP nominees have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

According to the analysis, conducted by the Tripura Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 8 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Regarding the declaration as crorepatis, the last Assembly polls had 12 per cent (35).

The analysis said that the role of money power in the elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties gave tickets to wealthy candidates.

Among the major parties, 31 per cent (17) out of 55 BJP candidates, 46 per cent (6) out of 13 Congress candidates and 16 per cent (7) out of 43 CPI-M candidates have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

The average assets per candidate contesting in the elections are Rs 86.37 lakhs.

In 2018, average assets per candidate for 297 candidates were Rs 46.92 lakhs.

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 55 BJP candidates is Rs 1.86 crore, while out of 13 Congress candidates average assets per candidate is Rs 2.20 crore and out of 43 CPI-M candidates this is Rs 53.94 lakhs and 42 Tipra Motha Party candidates have average assets worth Rs.78.57 lakhs.

The analysis revealed that 54 per cent (139) of the total of 259 candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 45 per cent (116) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.

Two candidates are Diploma holders and two candidates have declared themselves to be just literate. Of the contesting candidates, 24 per cent (63) have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years, while 55 per cent (142) are aged between 41 to 60 years.

There are 21 per cent (54) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years. Meanwhile, 12 per cent (30) female candidates are contesting as compared to the 8 per cent (24) in 2018.

Out of 259 candidates, 140 are from national parties, 9 belong to state parties, 52 are from registered unrecognised parties and 58 candidates are contesting independently.