Hyderabad: Election fever has gripped the North-Eastern state of Assam with voters from 47 constituencies in exercise their franchise in the first phase on March 27.
The current government led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is the first Bharatiya Janata Party regime in Assam since Independence and it is leaving no stone unturned to retain the regime.
As many as 264 candidates from more than 10 political parties have filed their nominations for 47 Assembly Constituencies in the first phase. However, the Assam Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 259 out of 264 candidates. The data of 5 candidates have not been analyzed as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website.
The number of polling stations has been increased from 24,890 in 2016 to 33,530 in 2021. The percentage increase in polling stations is at 35.71 per cent. The term of the current government in Assam will expire on May 31.
Out of 259 candidates, 97 (37%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 157 (61%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. Four candidates are Diploma holders and one candidate is just literate.
25(10%) female candidates out of 259 have filed their nomination for the first phase of Assembly polls.
Candidates contesting in the first phase of the polls have a strong financial background with 101(39%) belongs to the crorepati category. The Indian National Congress (INC) has become the top party to have a maximum number of crorepatis.
Candidates with Criminal Cases
Out of 259 candidates analyzed, 41 (16%) candidates have declared criminal cases while 34 (13%) have filed serious criminal cases against them.
Three (6%) out of 47 constituencies in the first phase have been declared Red alert constituencies where three or more contesting candidates have filed criminal cases against them.
A total of 824 Assembly constituencies shall be going to polls and 18.68 crore voters will cast votes at 2.7 lakh polling stations in states/UT this year. More than 3 lakh service vote electors will be availing facilities of electronically transmitted postal ballot system.
