Arunachal Assembly polls: 23 candidates have criminal cases against them

Twenty-three candidates in the fray for the April 19 Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, have criminal cases registered against them, according to a report of a civil society organisation.

The report prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Arunachal Pradesh Election Watch, which was released on Wednesday, revealed that out of the 23 candidates with criminal cases in the northeastern state, 20 have declared serious criminal cases against them in their affidavits.

The report was prepared after analysing the self-sworn affidavits of 142 out of 143 contesting candidates in the assembly polls.

The affidavit of BJP candidate Ratu Techi, who won from the Sagalee constituency unopposed, could not be analysed due to the unavailability of his clear and complete affidavit on the Election Commission website, the report said.

In the 2019 assembly polls in the state, out of 184 candidates analysed, 29 had declared criminal cases and 26 have declared serious criminal cases against them.

Out of the 142 candidates analysed, 98 are from national parties, 27 are from state parties, four from registered unrecognised parties and 13 independents, the report said.

Of the 23 candidates, the ruling BJP has fielded 11 candidates with criminal cases against them, Congress (4), NCP (3), National People's Party (NPP) and Peoples Party of Arunachal with two each and one independent, respectively.

Candidates with serious criminal cases against them include nine from BJP, four from Congress, NCP (3), PPA (2) and two candidates from NPP.