By-Elections: Four Crorepatis & Three With Criminal Records In Fray 

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Four candidates both from the ruling and opposition parties contesting the ensuing by-elections in Assam are millionaires or crorepatis.

This has come to light after two NGOs — the ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ and the ‘Assam Election Watch’ — analyzed the affidavits filed by all 20 candidates who are in the fray for the by-elections scheduled on October 21. Polls will be held at Sonari, Jania, Rangapara and Ratabari assembly constituencies

While two millionaires — Rajen Borthakur (BJP) and Kartik Kurmi (Congress) — will contest from the Rangapara constituency; the other two — Sushil Kumar Suri (Congress) and Nabanita Handique (BJP) – will be in the fray for Sonari.

The NGOs have found that the average assets of each candidate are Rs 42.82 lakh. There are seven candidates who have declared liabilities in their affidavits.

After analyzing the affidavits, the NGOs have found that three candidates with criminal backgrounds are fighting the ensuing by-elections. They are Rafiqul Islam of the AIUDF for Jania constituency, Kartik Kurmi of the Congress for Rangapara and Rustam Ali of the CPM for Jania.

According to the NGOs, Nabanita Handique is the only woman candidate contesting the byelection. Out of 20 candidates, one has just passed Class-VIII, three cleared matriculation and eight have passed class-XII, while four are graduates, two are post-graduates, one is a doctorate and one (a cultivator) mentioned his educational qualification as “others”. The candidates are from various backgrounds, right from business to cultivation to teacher.

The by-elections in the four Assembly constituencies has been necessitated in the event of some of the sitting MLAs who had contested the Lok Sabha poll in April this year, came out winner and they vacated their seats in the respective constituencies.

Sonari BJP MLA Topon Gogoi won the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat, while Rangapara BJP MLA Pallab Lochan Das won the Tezpur LS seat, Ratabari BJP MLA Kripanath Mallah and Congress’ Jania MLA Abdul Khaleque came out winners from Karimganj and Barpeta Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

The ruling BJP has set the target of winning three out of the four assembly seats.

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