Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 18
Skimming through the personal affidavits filed by poll contenders during elections makes for a good opportunity for the electors to size up their respective candidates. The information provided is like giving the public a bird’s eye view of the people in the run for public office.
Give the data to the statistician and the expert would map up an interesting array of information on the ebb and flow of electoral politics and the competitors riding the waves.
Amongst the pool of information, personal assets owned by the poll contenders and criminal records/cases pending against them tend to get the most attention.
Nagaland with its share of moneyed legislators is also not entirely bereft of contenders having pending criminal cases.
As per the constituency-wise personal affidavits made public by the Election Commission of India for the 13th Nagaland Legislative Elections 2018, two male contenders have declared criminal cases pending against them. This is out of the nomination submissions filed by 228 candidates before 32 withdrew. It is to be noted that one of the candidates’ affidavit could not be analysed fully as entries made in a section (Form 26) was not available in full.
The two candidates, contesting for two different regional parties from two different constituencies, have 3 cases in total. In the affidavit submitted, one has declared two pending cases – one relating to charges filed under IPC sections 418, 420,423 and 426 and a separate narcotics case in which the candidate has been charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The former case dates to 2012 and the latter to 2009-10.
The other candidate has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 on “allegation of misappropriation of government fund.” As per his affidavit, the case is pending at a Special CBI Court since 2011. The case was investigated by the Economic Offences Wing of the CBI.
The two contenders also featured in the list of candidates with criminal cases in the NLA elections of 2013 published by the New Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms. One won while the other lost.
The 2013 NLA elections had 3 contenders with declared criminal cases against them out of a total 187 candidates. Two were NPF candidates and the third, an Independent. Out of the three, one NPF candidate won. The Independent does not feature in the list of candidatures for the 13th NLA 2018 polls.
The cases against them, in random order, included motor accident claims, narcotics, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption charges.
In 2008, there were 4 with criminal cases out of 218 candidates. Two were from the RJD, one Congress and the fourth, an Independent. All four candidates could not make it to the 11th NLA.
The charges pending against them included attempt to murder, forgery, impersonation, defamation, counterfeiting and criminal intimidation.
On a comparative note, Nagaland ranks fairly low in the candidate-criminal case index of the north-eastern region. As per the ADR publications, Assam tops the list with as many as 72 candidates with criminal cases during the state’s 2016 Assembly elections. Assam though had 1064 candidates in the fray for the 126-seat Assam Legislative Assembly in 2016.
It was followed by Tripura with 19 candidates having pending criminal cases out of a total of 249 candidatures to the 60-seat Tripura Legislature in 2013. For the 2018 polls, the state has 22 candidates with criminal cases out of a total of 297.
Meghalaya had 13 with declared criminal cases out of 345 candidates to its 60-seat Legislature in 2013. Arunachal Pradesh had 11 with criminal cases out of 152 candidates for the state’s 60-seat Assembly in 2014. Manipur had 9 candidates with criminal cases out of a total of 265 in the race for its 60-seat Assembly.
40-seat Mizoram Assembly had 3 with criminal cases out of a total of 142 in the fray during the state’s 2013 elections.
