Imphal: Around 57 per cent of the 92 candidates contesting the second phase of Manipur Assembly elections are ‘crorepatis’ (millionaires), 16 candidates (17 per cent) have declared criminal cases against them, while 14 candidates (15 per cent) have serious criminal cases against them, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Friday.
According to an earlier report by ADR, more than 21 per cent of the 173 candidates contesting in the first phase of Manipur elections have criminal cases and 16 per cent have serious criminal cases against them, while 53 per cent are ‘crorepatis’.
According to the report of the ADR, which analysed the self-sworn affidavits of the 92 candidates, the average of assets per candidate contesting in the second phase of elections is Rs 2.61 crore.
Of the 52 ‘crorepatis’ (57 per cent) candidates, 10 candidates (11 per cent) having assets valued at Rs 5 crore and above.
The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates, the ADR report said.
It said that among the major parties, four (40 per cent) out of 10 candidates analysed from Janata Dal (United), four (22 per cent) out of 18 candidates belonging to Congress, 2 (18 per cent) out of 11 National People’s Party candidates and two (9 per cent) out of 22 candidates of the BJP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
According to the ADR analysis, four (40 per cent) out of 10 JD (United) candidates, four (22 per cent) out of 18 Congress candidates, one (9 per cent) out of 11 candidates of NPP and one (5 per cent) out of 22 candidates of BJP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Three candidates have cases related to crime against women and one of them declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376).
The ADR report said that 19 (21 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 8th and 12th standard while 72 (78 per cent) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. One candidate is a Diploma holder.
In all, nine (10 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 66 (72 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years and there are 17 (18 per cent) candidates have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.
The elections to the 60-seat Manipur Assembly would be held in two phases on February 28 and March 5 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
(IANS)
