By TCN staff reporter,
Guwahati: Voters of the state rejected 87% of candidates with criminal records in the Assembly Election of Assam 2011, informed Ariful Hussain, coordinator of Assam Election Watch at a press conference on May 16, 2011. Revealing the criminal background of the winners, AEW research found, based on the affidavits filed by the candidates before election, that 13 MLAs i.e. 10% (out of 126 analyzed) in the new Assembly have criminal cases pending against them as per their own declarations. Eight MLAs out of these 13 analyzed have declared serious IPC charges like kidnapping and extortion. This is an increase from the 2006 Assembly where the number of MLAs with criminal cases pending was only 7.
All major parties have MLAs with pending criminal cases against them. AIUDF has six MLAs out 18 analyzed (33%), INC has 4 out of 78 analyzed (5%), while AITC, AGP and BJP have 1 MLA each out of 1, 10 and 5 MLAs analyzed respectively with pending criminal cases.
Pending Criminal Cases against MLAs – Party-wise
|
Party |
Total MLAs analyzed |
MLAs with Pending Criminal Cases |
% of MLAs with pending criminal cases |
MLAs with serious pending criminal cases |
% of MLAs with serious pending criminal cases |
|
INC |
78 |
4 |
5% |
2 |
3% |
|
AIUDF |
18 |
6 |
33% |
4 |
22% |
|
AGP |
10 |
1 |
10% |
0 |
0% |
|
BJP |
5 |
1 |
20% |
1 |
20% |
|
AITC |
1 |
1 |
100% |
1 |
100% |
|
Others |
14 |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
Total |
126 |
13 |
10% |
8 |
6% |
AEW found that out of 126 MLAs analyzed in Assam 2006 Assembly elections, 7 (6%) had pending criminal cases against them. Out these of 7 MLAs, 5 (4%) had serious pending criminal cases against them.