New Delhi: An hour after the sun rose over India on April 7, the world's largest democratic exercise has begun at 6 Lok Sabha seats in two Northeastern states. Voters in 5 Parliamentary seats in Assam and 1 in Tripura are exercising their democratic rights to elect members for the 16th Lok Sabha after the formation of which there will be a new government and the Prime Minister.
A total of 76,69,551 voters in Tejpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur in Assam and Tripura West in Tripura are eligible to exercise their franchise. While the five seats of Assam have 64,21,004 voters, in the lone seat of Tripura there are 12,48,547 electorate. The Election Commission of India, which is highly respected all over the world for its impartial nature and smooth conducting of the elections, is conducting the current Parliament elections in 9 phases. The exercise ends on May 12 and the votes will be counted across India on May 16.
The ruling Congress, Asom Gana Parishad, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) Communist parties, Aam Aadmi Party and BJP are the main players, which have fielded their candidates in the first phase. A total of 64 candidates are contesting in the first phase.
The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements across all 6 seats, which were once hit by internal insurgency. The voting which has started at 7 o'clock will end at 6 o'clock in the evening.
Almost 82 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in this election. Of them over 10 crore are first time voters in the age group of 18-22 years.
A large contingent of the foreign media is currently travelling across India to cover world's biggest democratic exercise. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up 24 hour monitoring stations to oversee and address the grievances of the voters.
The ECI has banned polling surveys and exit polls till the last phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
Key candidates in the fray
Moni Kumar Subba - Independent candidate from Tezpur - Assam Ranee Narah - Congress - Lakhimpur - Assam Hariprasad Dihingia of AGP from Lakhimpur - Assam Gaurav Gogoi - Kaliabor - Assam Jinti Gogoi of AAP - Kaliabor - Assam Prof Arunoday Saha - Congress - Tripura West - Tripura Sankar Prasad Datta - CPM - Tripura West - Tripura First phase - Candidates analysis The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has analysed the self sworn affidavits of all 64 candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha elections phase one.
Of total 64 candidates 6 are facing criminal cases and 3 of them are facing very serious cases. There are 17 crorepati candidates in the fray. Rs 5.75 crore is the average assets of the candidates.
They are facing variety of criminal cases including rape and attempt to murder. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has fielded 5 candidates with criminal cases. The 'lottery king' Moni Kumar Subba is the richest candidate with declared assets worth over Rs 306 crore. He is the richest candidate from the entire Northeast region and one of the richest in the country.
Of total 64 candidates 6 are facing criminal cases and 3 of them are facing very serious cases.
Out of 64 candidates, only 10 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 4 lakh. Independent candidate from Lakhimpur Hrishikesh Baruah is the poorest with declared income of just Rs 9000.
Education
Thirty-one per cent of the candidates have studied up to 12 standard and below and 69 per cent are graduate and above. Fifty-five per cent candidates are in the age group of 25-50 years and 41 per cent are in the age group of 51-70 years while 3 per cent candidates are above the age 70 years. A total of 91 per cent of the candidates are male and just nine per cent female.
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