There has been an improvement in the educational qualifications of candidates in this year's Bihar elections as 48 per cent of candidates have declared graduation or above as their degree while the figure was 42 per cent in 2015 elections.
A total of 3,450 candidates contested Bihar assembly polls in 2015 and the number of contestants in this year's election is 3,733.
According to ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms), which tracks affidavits filed by candidates, a total of 1,635 (47 per cent) candidates in 2015 elections had declared their education qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass while 1,433 (42 per cent) candidates had declared that they are graduate or above.
A total of 338 candidates had declared themselves to be simple literates and 11 candidates had declared that they were illiterates.
In 2020, a total of 1,556 (42 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th standard while 1,794 (48 per cent) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.
According to ADR, a total of 322 candidates are "literate", there are 15 candidates who are illiterate and 32 candidates are diploma holders. Three candidates have not declared their education details in the affidavit.
The ADR, which analysed affidavits of 3722 of 3733 candidates in this year's election, said while 900 candidates were graduates, 306 were graduate (professional), 489 were postgraduates and 99 doctorates.
In terms of PhD degree holders among major parties, JD(U) has the highest at 10, followed by BJP at 9, RJD at eight, LJP at 7, BSP at 4 and Congress at three. The maximum 25 PhD degree holders are among the independents.
RJD has 41 candidates who have declared graduation as their degree, LJP has 39 such candidates, BJP 30, JD(U) 27, INC 24, NCP 8 and BSP 17.
Among independent candidates, 291 have declared graduation as their degree.
Eighteen RJD, 20 LJP, 16 BJP, 24 JD(U), 14 INC, 18 NCP and 5 BSP candidates have declared post-graduation as their degree.
( With inputs from ANI )
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