NEW DELHI, March 26 � At least six of the sixty-four candidates vying for six seats, including five in Assam and one in Tripura in the first phase of polls, have criminal cases pending against them.
Hariprasad Dihingia of AGP from Lakhimpur constituency and Subal Bhowmik an independent candidate from Tripura West constituency in Tripura have the highest count of serious � four � IPC charges each. They are followed by Moni Kumar Subba, an independent candidate from Tezpur constituency, who has three serious IPC charges pending against him.
The charges pending against the candidates vary from serious criminal cases: including attempt to murder and rape. While Subba has a rape case pending against him, Subal Bhowmik has a case related to attempt to murder.
According to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 51 candidates fighting for five seats in Assam have three criminal cases each pending against them. Interestingly, five candidates fielded by AGP have criminal records.
Meanwhile, 25 per cent (16 candidates) of the 64 candidates fighting in the first phase are crorepaties.
The Indian National Congress (INC) has the highest number of crorepatis and declared assets of over Rs 1 crore each.
It is however, Moni Kumar Subba, who is the richest candidate of all with Rs 306 crore of declared assets. He has liabilities worth Rs 140 crore. He is followed by Ranee Narah and Hariprasad Dihingia of AGP, who have declared Rs 8 crore assets each.
Hrishikesh Barua, an independent candidate contesting from Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituency has a modest income of Rs 9,000. Jinti Gogoi, AAP candidate contesting from Kaliabor, has an income of Rs 42,000.
Meanwhile, in a separate report brought out by the Parliament about performance of MPs of the North Eastern States, MPs from Manipur have the highest average attendance of 98 per cent. Most North Eastern States score higher than the national attendance average of 76 per cent.
Badruddin Ajmal has asked the most questions (320) with Khagen Das from Tripura a close second (310). The national questions average is 300. Bijoya Chakravarty has introduced the most number of private member Bills numbering four. The national average for introduction of private member Bills is 0.8.
Sikkim MP PD Rai has the highest number of debates spoken (70). The national average for debates spoken is 38. Ramen Deka of BJP has participated in 62 debates, followed closely by SK Bwiswmutiary 51, Bijoya Chakravarty (37), Kabindra Purkayastha (34) and Badruddin Ajmal (30)
Bijoy Krishna Handique, Dip Gogoi, Ismail Hussain and Agatha Sangma have earned the dubious distinction of not participating in any debate in the Lok Sabha.
