By IANS
New Delhi : Only three women in Tripura and one in Meghalaya managed to win last week’s assembly polls though the northeastern states had more female candidates in fray than the national average.
The number of women contestants was 31 in Tripura and 20 women were in the fray in Meghalaya.
Both the Tripura and Meghalaya assemblies have strength of 60 members each.
The level of education among the elected representatives is low. Only 31 and 35 graduates in the Tripura and Meghalaya assembles are graduates respectively.
Data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) – an independent election watchdog – shows that 10 percent of the Tripura MLAs never passed the matriculation exams. The number is slightly better in Meghalaya where seven percent are non-matriculates.
The ADR data shows that 39 MLAs in Tripura have been re-elected out of which 31 are from the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
Though Tripura fares badly in terms of education, all its legislators have a clean record except for Sudhir Rajan of the Congress, who is charged with criminal conspiracy and forgery.
As per the affidavits submitted by candidates, there are four MLAs, all from the Congress, having more than Rs.10 million in assets. Subal Bhowmik from Sonamura constituency has declared highest assets of Rs.158.8 million. On the other hand, there are two MLAs who have liabilities exceeding Rs.1 million.
In Meghalaya, only 20 candidates were re-elected, of which 12 from the Congress. None of the newly elected MLAs has a criminal record.
Ten MLAs have financial assets worth more than Rs.10 million. Of these, six are from the Congress. Five MLAs have liabilities exceeding Rs.1 million.