The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Arappor Iyakkam have done an analysis of criminal, financial and other background details of candidates contesting in the state assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu in April 2017 and have come up with the following:

A total of 62 candidates are in the fray in the RK Nagar By-Election to be held on April 12, 2017. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Arappor Iyakkam which is part of the Tamilnadu Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 57 out of the 62 candidates. 5 of these candidates could not be analysed due to unclear affidavits. 

Criminal Background Details

§  Out of the 57 candidates analysed, 7 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 

§  2 candidates have declared serious criminal cases. 

§  P Mathivanan of the DMDK has declared a case u/s 307 of IPC (Attempt to Murder).

§  N Gunasekar, Independent candidate has declared 1 charge u/s 307 of IPC (Attempt to Murder), 1 charge u/s 324 of IPC (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous attempts or means) and 1 charge related to extortion (IPC Sec 384).  

Financial Background Details

§  Out of the 57 candidates, 9 are crorepatis. These include candidates from the AIADMK (Amma), AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma), Naam Tamilar Katchi, Kamarajar Deseeya Congress, and 5 independent candidates.

§  The average assets per candidate contesting in the bye elections is Rs. 96.84 lakhs. The average assets of independent candidates is Rs 43 lakhs.

§  The top 3 candidates with highest assets are: 

1.    K Kalaikottuthayam – Naam Tamilar Katchi – Total Assets of Rs 14.14 Cr

2.    TTV Dinakaran – AIADMK (Amma) – Total Assets of Rs 10. 78 Cr

3.    E Madhusudhanan – AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) – Total Assets of Rs 5.38 Cr

§  TTV Dinakaran has also declared liabilities amounting to Rs 5.04 Cr, which puts him on top of the list of candidates with highest liabilities.

§  The top 3 candidates with highest income are:

1.    TTV Dinakaran – AIADMK (Amma) – FY2015-16: Rs 73 Lakhs (including income of spouse and dependent). However, self-income shown by candidate is only Rs 2.2 Lakhs.

2.    Gangai Amaran – BJP – FY2015-16: Rs 17 Lakhs.

3.    Michael Raj M A – Independent – FY2015-16: Rs 14 Lakhs (including income of spouse and dependent), while self-income is Rs 10 lakhs.

§  70% of the candidates have not declared Income Tax details. 28% of the candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details 

§  37 candidates have educational qualification between 5th pass and 12th pass while 20 candidates are graduates or above.

§  37 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 50 years while 20 candidates have declared their age to be between 51 to 80 years. 

§  6 out of 57 candidates are women (10.5%). All of them are independent candidates.