Bhubaneswar: As many as 95 of the total 265 candidates contesting 35 Assembly seats in the state are crorepaties, according to a report of ADR and Odisha Election Watch.
The Governing BJD has 30 crorepati candidates followed by 24 each in Opposition BJP and Congress and three from APP which had fielded candidates in ten assembly seats.
The three major political parties are contesting all the 35 Assembly seats going for poll on May 20.
Interestingly, 10 independents contesting the Assembly elections in the second phase are also crorepatis, also one each from the CPI and CPM.
Among the top ten crorepatis in the fray in the 35 Assembly seats, the Governing BJD accounted for 6, followed by two each in BJP and the Congress.
BJP’s Rourkela candidate and former Union Minister Dilip Ray is the richest candidate with total assets of Rs 313.53 crore followed by BJD candidate for Bolangir, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo of BJD with Rs73.66 crore.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who has declared his assets at Rs.71.07 crore, is in the third position in the rich candidates list.
BJP candidate for Patnagarh K V Singhdeo belonging to the Royal family, has declared Rs.67.30 crore assets.
Saroj Mukar Meher, sitting BJD MLA from Patnagarh who is seeking re-election has declared his assets at Rs 67.27 crores.
Another BJD candidate from Jharsuguda Dipali Das, daughter of former Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, has declared her assets at Rs.37.35 crore.
Two Congress candidates Anil Meher contesting from Patnagarh and Nakul Nayak from Daspalla are also crorepatis with total assets of Rs.14.59 crore and Rs 14.26 crore respectively.
The candidates having lowest assets are Pradeep Sahu, an independent contesting Boudh Assembly seat who has declared his assets at Rs 7000 only.
The other two candidates having the lowest assets are Abhiram Dharua from Kantabanji and Satyanaraya Bohidar from Titlagarh Assembly seat declaring their assets at Rs 8000 and Rs 11,000 respectively.
The report said independent candidate Sohan Sipka contesting the Kantabanji Assembly seat has declared zero assets.
Out of 265 candidates analyzed, 87 (33 percent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. At least 70 candidates from them are facing serious criminal cases.
Informing details of charges against the candidates, the ADR said five candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section -302) against themselves while 16 candidates are facing attempt to murder (IPC Section 307) cases, and 11 crime against women.
Among the major parties, 28 (80 percent) candidates from BJP, 17 (52 percent) from Congress, 9 (26 per cent) from BJD and 4 (40 per cent) out of 10 AAP candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, it said.
Giving education details of candidates, the report said that 130 candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard while 122 candidates are having an educational qualification of graduate or above. Besides, 10 candidates are diploma holders and 3 declared themselves as just literate.