59% candidates in Nagaland elections are crorepatis; only 5 women in fray

Source:

Author:

Jayanta Deka

Date:

22.02.2018

City:

As many as 59 per cent of the candidates for the February 27 Nagaland Assembly elections have declared themselves as crorepatis.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), along with Nagaland Election Watch, analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 193 out of 196 candidates for the assembly elections and found that the average asset per candidate is Rs 3.76 crore. Interestingly, 27 (14 per cent) of the candidates have not declared their source of income.

The ADR report found that 46 (24 per cent) candidates have declared assets to be above Rs 5 crore while 42 (22 per cent) of them have reported assets between Rs 2-5 lakhs.

Giving a party-wise breakup of the crorepatis, the ADR report said, “43 (77 per cent) out of 56 candidates from NPF, 24 (62 per cent) out of 39 candidates from NDPP, 13 (65 per cent) out of 20 candidates from BJP, 12 (48 per cent) out of 25 candidates from NPP, 7 (54 per cent) out of 13 candidates from JD(U), and 6 (33 per cent) out of 18 candidates from INC have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.”

“Among the major parties, the average assets per candidate for 56 NPF candidates is Rs 3.95 crores, 39 NDPP candidates have average assets of Rs 5.07 crores, 25 NPP candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.80 crores, 20 BJP candidates have average assets worth Rs 5.83 crores, 18 INC candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.36 crores, 13 JD(U) candidates have average assets worth Rs 6.43 crores and 11 Independent candidates have average assets of Rs 2.68 crores,” the report further said.

With total asset of Rs 38.69 crores, Ramongo Lotha, JD(U) candidate from Sanis constituency in Wokha district of Nagaland declared himself as the richest candidate in fray.

Lotha is closely followed by BJP’s KL Chishi from Atoizu constituency with total assets worth Rs 38.20 crores.

Interestingly, a total of 9 (5 per cent) out of the 193 candidates analysed have not declared their PAN details and 27 (14 per cent) out of 193 candidates have not declared their sources of income.

In terms of education, 52 (27 per cent) of the candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between class VIII to class XII pass, while 137 candidates (71 per cent) declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. “There are three candidates who are illiterate,” said the ADR report.

A majority of those contesting elections for the Nagaland Assembly are aged between 51 years to 80 years (61 per cent) while 75 candidates (39 per cent) are between 25 years to 50 years. “One candidate has declared his age above 80 years,” said the ADR analysis.

There are only 5 (3 per cent) women candidates contesting the Nagaland elections.