Bhubaneswar: BJP’s Rourkela candidate and former Union Minister Dilip Ray is the richest candidate with total assets of Rs 313.53 crore.
Hospitality Czar Shri Ray is the Chairman of Mayfair Group of Hotels, which he controls the major share.
Naturally Shri Ray is the richest among the candidates, who are fighting battle in Odisha Assembly segments to face polling on 20 May.
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.