60 per cent of Arunachal Assembly candidates are crorepatis

ITANAGAR: About sixty per cent of the candidates in poll fray in Arunachal Pradesh for April 9 Assembly polls are crorepatis.

As many as 91 of 152 candidates are crorepatis while average assets declared per candidate is Rs 6.30 crore compared to Rs 3.51 crore in the 2009 elections.

There were 51 from Congress, 24 from BJP, five from NCP and four PPA nominees with assets over more than one crore.

There were also 14 Independent candidates with an average of Rs 8.05 crore in assets, according to a study by the Arunachal Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms.

The top five crorepatis are from Congress - Takam Pario from Palin with declared assets of Rs 187.56 crore followed by Pema Khandu from Mukto with Rs 129.57 crore, Gojen Gadi from Basar with Rs 89.71 crore and Nabam Rebia from Doimukh with Rs 26.49 crore.

PPA's Nikh Kamin from Bordumsa has property worth Rs 13.63 crore.

Independent candidate Tsering Tashi from Tawang had Rs 96.43 crore in assets.

In statistical terms 60 per cent of total contestants had both movable and immovable assets in crores of rupees as against 41 per cent in the 2009 polls.

The poorest candidate was Bida Taku of PPA from Lekang whose movable assets were worth just Rs 3,540 followed by Debia Tara of BJP from Yachuli with Rs 5,000, while Holai Wangsa of BJP from Pongchau-Wakka had total assets worth Rs 50,000.

The study also showed that 11 of the 152 candidates had criminal cases pending against them against four candidates in the 2009 election.

Of the 11 candidates, nine had serious criminal cases, including crime against women, dacoity, and theft.