Press Release: Sikkim Assembly Elections 2024: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and Other Details of Candidates

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Apr 13, 2024, 4:49:38 AMApr 13

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Press Release

Date: April 13, 2024

Dear Friends,

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Sikkim Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 146 candidates, who are contesting in the Sikkim 2024 Assembly Elections. Out of 146 candidates analysed, 43 are from National parties, 64 are from State parties, 31 are from registered unrecognized parties and 8 candidates are contesting independently.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and-other-details-candidates-sikkim

Party	Total Number of Analysed Candidates	Candidates with declared Criminal Cases	% of candidates with declared criminal cases	Candidates with declared serious criminal cases	% of candidates with declared serious criminal cases	No. of Crorepatis	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
National Parties	43	0	0%	0	0%	21	49%
State Parties	64	4	6%	4	6%	59	92%
Registered Unrecognized Party	31	2	6%	2	6%	17	55%
Independent	8	2	25%	0	0%	5	63%
Total	146	8	5%	6	4%	102	70%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Summary and Highlights

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 146 candidates analysed in Sikkim Assembly elections 2024, 8(5%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In the 2019 Sikkim Assembly Elections, out of 150 candidates analysed, 4(3%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 6(4%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2019 Sikkim Assembly Elections, 4 (3%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2019 vs 2024

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: 2(6%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Democratic Front, 2(6%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, 2 (7%) out of 30 candidates analysed from Citizen Action Party-Sikkim and 2 (25%) out of 8 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 2(6%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Democratic Front, 2(6%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and 2 (7%) out of 30 candidates from Citizen Action Party-Sikkim have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

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 Sikkim assembly elections 2024 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
Rs. 5 crores and above	62	42%
Rs. 2 crores to Rs. 5 crores	24	16%
Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 2 crores	30	21%
Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 50 lakhs	14	10%
less than Rs. 10 lakhs	16	11%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 146 candidates analysed, 102(70%) are crorepatis. In 2019 Sikkim Assembly Elections, out of 150 candidates, 64(43%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2019 Vs 2024

Party wise Crorepati Candidates: The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties 31(97%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, 28(88%) out of 32 candidates analysed from Sikkim Democratic Front, 21(68%) out of 31 candidates analysed from BJP, 17(57%) out of 30 candidates analysed from Citizen Action Party-Sikkim and 5(63%) out of 8 Independent candidates 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 Sikkim Elections 2024 is Rs 10.99 Crores. In 2019 Sikkim Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 150 Candidates was Rs. 3.89 crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 32 Sikkim Krantikari Morcha candidates analysed is Rs. 20.36 Crores, 32 Sikkim Democratic Front candidates analysed is Rs 13.16 Crores, 31 BJP candidates have average assets of Rs 8.71 Crores and 12 INC have average assets worth Rs 19 Lakhs.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Sikkim Assembly Elections 2024 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Delay Namgyal Barfungpa	Gangtok	GANGTOK (BL)	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	1,00,65,292	1,36,51,64,568	1,37,52,29,860 137 Crore+	Y
2	Bhaichung Bhutia	Namchi	BARFUNG (BL)	Sikkim Democratic Front	3,05,14,064	1,24,18,00,000	1,27,23,14,064 127 Crore+	Y
3	Khusandra Prasad Sharma	Gyalshing	GYALSHING-BARNYAK	IND	4,63,99,708	1,12,51,74,640	1,17,15,74,348 117 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with lowest assets are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Penzong Lepcha	MANGAN	DJONGU (BL)	BJP	3,000	0	3,000 3 Thou+	Y
2	Sancho Lepcha	SORENG	RINCHENPONG (BL)	BJP	5,000	0	5,000 5 Thou+	Y
3	Yogen Rai	NAMCHI	MELLI	BJP	51,033	0	51,033 51 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with high liabilities: 90(62%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets (Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Khusandra Prasad Sharma	GYALSHING	GYALSHING-BARNYAK	IND	1,17,15,74,348 117 Crore+	37,14,43,543 37 Crore+	Y
2	Tenzing Norbu Lamtha	GANGTOK	SHYARI (BL)	Sikkim Democratic Front	58,27,07,142 58 Crore+	23,21,87,700 23 Crore+	Y
3	Nar Bahadur Dahal	GANGTOK	KHAMDONG-SINGTAM	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	74,10,91,903 74 Crore+	19,01,50,431 19 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

Undeclared PAN: A total of 146(100%) candidates have declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 60(41%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 77(53%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 7 candidates are Diploma holders. 1 candidate is just literate and 1 candidate has not given his educational details.

Age details of candidates: 26(18%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 100 (68%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 20 (14%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

Gender details of candidates: 14(10%) female candidates are contesting in the Sikkim Assembly Elections 2024. In 2019 Sikkim Assembly Elections, 14(9%) out of 150 candidates analysed were women.

Comparative Analysis of Re-contesting MLAs in the Sikkim Assembly Election 2024

Summary of comparison for re-contesting MLAs

Number of re-contesting MLAs: Number of re-contesting MLAs analysed in the Sikkim assembly elections of 2024 is 19.

Average Assets in 2019 Elections: The average assets of these re-contesting MLAs fielded by various parties in 2019 was Rs 9.76 Crores.

Average Assets in 2024 Elections: The average asset of these 19 re-contesting MLAs in 2024 is Rs 18.38 Crores.

Average Asset growth in 5 years (2019-2024): The average asset growth for these 19 re- contesting MLAs, between the Sikkim Assembly Elections of 2019 and 2024 is Rs 8.61 crores.

Percentage growth in 5 years (2019-2024): Average percentage growth in assets for these 19 re-contesting MLAs is 88%.

Top 5 Re-contesting MLAs with highest asset increase (Rupees- wise)

The following table provides the assets details of top 5 re-contesting MLAs showing highest increase in assets (Rupee wise):

S.No.	Name	Source of Income (Self)	Source of Income (Spouse)	Party in Sikkim 2024	Party in Sikkim 2019	Constituency in Sikkim 2024	Constituency in Sikkim 2019	Assets in Sikkim 2024 (Rs.)	Assets in Sikkim 2019 (Rs.)	Assets Increase (Rs.)	% Increase in Assets
1.	Samdup Lepcha	Salary	Pension	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	LACHEN MANGAN (BL)	LACHEN MANGAN	65,97,35,237 65 Crore+	23,71,16,263 23 Crore+	42,26,18,974 42 Crore+	178%
2.	Sanjeet Kharel	Salay	Nil	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	NAMTHANG-RATEYPANI	NAMTHANG-RATEYPANI	32,97,76,708 32 Crore+	4,07,63,883 4 Crore+	28,90,12,825 28 Crore+	709%
3.	Kunga Nima Lepcha	Salary and Pension	NA	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	SHYARI (BL)	SHYARI	19,20,60,699 19 Crore+	62,97,797 62 Lacs+	18,57,62,902 18 Crore+	2950%
4.	Arun Kumar Upreti	Salary	Salary	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	ARITHANG	ARITHANG	26,06,04,149 26 Crore+	11,42,34,450 11 Crore+	14,63,69,699 14 Crore+	128%
5.	Sonam Tsh. Venchungpa	Salary, Pension, Agriculture	Salary	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	BJP	MARTAM-RUMTEK (BL)	MARTAM-RUMTEK: BYE ELECTION ON 21-10-2019	19,48,92,056 19 Crore+	7,22,97,353 7 Crore+	12,25,94,703 12 Crore+	170%