Majority contestants are crorepatis; Rs 5.80 cr is average of assets
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 17: In the first ever Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, more than 20 percent candidates in Phase-II have criminal cases against them, including attempt to murder, rape and other cases related to crimes against women.
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Those having criminal cases against them include candidates from prominent political parties also; four each from BJP and PDP, two from Congress, and one from National Conference.
According to an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 238 candidates in Phase-II, conducted by the Jammu & Kashmir Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), total 49 candidates have declared criminal cases against them.
Among these, 37 have serious criminal cases against them. Three candidates have cases of attempt to murder while seven others have cases related to crimes against women, including one with rape case.
Due to presence of such a big number of candidates with criminal cases against them, eight out of 26 constituencies are red alert constituencies.
Pertinent to mention that the red alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against them.
Further, role of money power in elections can be gauged from the movable and immovable assets of the candidates in Phase-II as 55 percent of them are crorepatis (multi-millionaire). The average of assets per candidate contesting the Assembly elections (Phase-II) is Rs 5.80 crores.
Out of the 238 candidates, 24 have assets worth Rs 10 crores and above, 36 have Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore and 71 have Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crores while 50 candidates have assets worth Rs 20 lakh to Rs one crore and 57 have less than Rs 20 lakh.
Among the major political parties, 100 percent candidates of Congress, 90 percent of NC, 76 percent of BJP and 73 percent of PDP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.
Party wise, the average assets per candidate of Congress is Rs 29.39 crores, NC-Rs 11.21 crores, BJP-Rs 11.07 crores and PDP-Rs 5.24 crores.
Top three candidates with highest declared assets in Phase-II, are Altaf Bukhari of Apni Party (Rs 165 crores), Tariq Hamid Karra of Congress (Rs148 crores) and Mushtaq Guroo of NC (Rs 94 crores).
Similarly, the top three candidates with high income declared in ITR, are Kuldeep Raj Dubey of BJP (Rs 2.24 crores), Ashok Kumar Sharma of DPAP (Rs 77 lakh) and Independent candidate Masood Ahmed from Poonch Haveli (Rs 72 lakh).
Masood Ahmed is also among the top three candidates with highest liabilities. Having Rs10.26 crores liabilities, he is followed by Randhir Singh of BJP (Rs 9.30 crores) and Zaffer Habib Dar of Apni Party (Rs 8.08 crores). Interestingly, Mr Dar has total assets of Rs 2.79 crores only whereas his liabilities are Rs 8.08 crores.
Almost half of the candidates have their educational qualification between 5th and 12th standard while one of them has declared himself illiterate. 114 candidates are graduate or above while six others are Diploma holders. Among all the candidates, 84 are in the age group of 25-40, 105 in 41-60 and 49 in 61-80.
Contrary to tall claims of all political parties for empowerment of women, there are only six (3 percent) female candidates in Phase-II of the Assembly elections.
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