Press Release: Assam Assembly Elections 2021 Phase I: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

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Press Release

17th March, 2021

Dear Friends,

The Assam Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 259 out of 264 candidates, who are contesting in the Assam Assembly Elections Phase I.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/assam-assembly-elections-2021-phase-i-analysis-criminal-background-financial-education

Assam Election Watch and ADR have not analysed 5 candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website. The details of these candidates is given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party
1	Fakar Uddin	Nagaon	Batadroba	Asom Jana Morcha
2	Milicharan Basumatary	Biswanath Chariali	Biswanath	IND
3	Lohit Gogoi	Charaideo (Sonari)	Mahmara	IND
4	Biri Joy	Lakhimpur	Naoboicha	National Peoples Party
5	Nurul Amin Chowdhury	Nagaon	Rupohihat	IND

Table: List of Candidates not analysed

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of 259 candidates analyzed, 41 (16%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 34(13%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Party Wise Candidates with Criminal Cases

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 10(23%) out of 43 candidates analysed from INC, 8(20%) out of 41 candidates analysed from Assam Jatiya Parishad, 3 (8%) out of 39 candidates analysed from BJP and One candidate each from NCP, AGP and SUCI(C) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties, 9(21%) out of 43 candidates analysed from INC, 6(15%) out of 41 candidates analysed from Assam Jatiya Parishad, 3 (8%) out of 39 candidates analysed from BJP and One candidate each from NCP, AGP and SUCI(C) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 5 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 5 candidates 1 candidate has declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 2 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 4 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies: 3(6%) out of 47 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in Phase 1 of the Assam Assembly Elections 2021 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 16% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Assam phase I elections have given tickets to 8 % to 23% candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Supreme Court in its directions dated 13th February, 2020 had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent Bihar Assembly elections held in October, 2020 it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers.

Financial Background

Figure: Share of Wealth among the Contesting Candidates

Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Assam assembly elections 2021 phase I is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 cr and above	26	10%
2 crores to 5 crores	35	14%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	72	28%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	60	23%
less than 10 lakhs	66	25%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of 259 candidates, 101(39%) are crorepatis.
Party wise Crorepati Candidates: Among the major parties 9(90%) out of 10 candidates analysed from AGP, 31(72%) out of 43 candidates analysed from INC, 28(72%) out of 39 candidates analysed from BJP and 15(37%) out of 41 candidates analysed from Assam Jatiya Parishad have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Assam Assembly Elections 2021 Phase I is Rs 1.84 Crore.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 43 INC candidates analysed is Rs. 3.54 Crores, 41 Assam Jatiya Parishad candidates analysed is Rs 1.23 Crore, 39 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 3.64 Crores, 10 AGP candidates have average assets of Rs 6.71 Crores, 6 JD(U) candidates have average assets of Rs 8.57 Lacs and 5 NCP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 24.62 Lacs.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Assam Assembly Elections Phase I are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Naren Sonowal	Dibrugarh	Naharkatia	AGP	2,26,18,917	31,61,93,447	33,88,12,364 33 Crore+	Y
2	Naba Kumar Doley	Dhakuakhana	Dhakuakhana (St)	BJP	6,15,14,617	19,37,64,000	25,52,78,617 25 Crore+	Y
3	Bharat Chandra Narah	Lakhimpur	Naoboicha	INC	17,18,51,593	4,60,04,759	21,78,56,352 21 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Low asset candidates: The details of three candidates with the lowest assets are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Anupam Chutia	Lakhimpur	Naoboicha	SUCI(C)	15,503	0	15,503 15 Thou+	Y
2	Simon Tanti	Bokakhat	Bokakhat	IND	16,300	0	16,300 16 Thou+	Y
3	Suresh Bhumij	Tinsukia	Doom Dooma	Assam Jatiya Parishad	24,755	0	24,755 24 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with high liabilities: 132(51%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with the highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Bhaskar Jyoti Baruah	Titabar	Titabar	INC	11,30,27,283 11 Crore+	6,45,29,137 6 Crore+	Y
2	Naren Sonowal	Dibrugarh	Naharkatia	AGP	33,88,12,364 33 Crore+	5,94,84,942 5 Crore+	Y
3	Biswajit Phukan	Dhansiri	Sarupathar	BJP	10,87,16,194 10 Crore+	5,84,25,489 5 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District Name	Total Asset (Rs)	Self-Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self-income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	Jayanta Khaund	AGP	Naoboicha	Lakhimpur	13,81,92,935 13 Crore+	Business	Profession of Law	2019-2020	4,29,86,397 4 Crore+	4,23,55,698 4 Crore+
2	Benudhar Nath	INC	Dhekiajuli	Tezpur	16,54,53,022 16 Crore+	Business & Contract	Business	2018-2019	1,61,79,610 1 Crore+	1,48,19,770 1 Crore+
3	Biswajit Phukan	BJP	Sarupathar	Dhansiri	10,87,16,194 10 Crore+	Business and Interest on Deposits	Salary and Interest on Deposits	2019-2020	93,57,180 93 Lacs+	79,26,090 79 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 candidates with highest income as declared in ITR

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 97(37%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 157 (61%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 4 candidates are Diploma holders and 1 candidate is just literate.

Age details of candidates: 67(26%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 153 (59%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 38(15%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 70 years. 1 candidate has declared his age 85 years.

Gender details of candidates: 25(10%) female candidates are contesting in the Assam assembly election 2021 Phase I.

Recommendations of ADR

To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society and citizens. The Supreme Court of India being the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection and absence of required laws.

Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping etc.

Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.

Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.

Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.

De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly puts up a candidate with a tainted background.

Political parties should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.

Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).

Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time bound manner.

Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September, 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.

Contact Details

Assam Election Watch

Mr. Tasaduk Ariful Hussain

State Co-ordinator

+91 94350-54775

arif...@gmail.com

National Election Watch/Association for Democratic Reforms

Media and Journalist Helpline

+91 80103 94248

Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj.Gen. Anil Verma (Retd)

Head