Over half of Assam's candidates haven't cleared class 12, says ADR report

New Delhi: More than half of the candidates contesting first phase of Assam assembly elections have studied only up to class 12th, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

According to an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits, of all the 539 candidates contesting in the first phase of the poll, 301 or 56% candidates have declared their education qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th Pass.

Around 41% candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduation or above. Nine of the candidates have revealed being just literate, and one is illiterate.

Merely 8% (43) candidates are women.

The first phase of Assam assembly elections will be held on April 4 and phase-2 on April 11.