The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report said 13 candidates have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

At least 30 per cent (pc) candidates from five Lok Sabha constituencies contesting the elections in the second phase polls to be held on May 20 in Odisha have disclosed criminal cases pending against them and 33 pc candidates are crorepatis. The number of candidates with declared criminal cases has gone up by 10 pc as compared to 2019 elections.

Of the 40 candidates including six women in fray, 12 have declared criminal cases against them. While eight candidates have declared serious criminal cases, one has declared cases related to murder and four each have attempt-to-murder and cases related to crime against women pending against them.

An analysis of candidates data released by Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Sunday revealed, the highest 80 pc BJP candidates are with declared criminal cases while 20 pc candidates each are from BJD and Congress.

Four out of five LS candidates of BJP and one each from BJD and Congress have criminal cases pending against them besides two Independent candidates and one each from National Apni Party (NAP), National Jan Dal (NJD), Sanatan Sanskriti Raksha Dal and Naba Bharata Nirmana Seva Party (NBNSP).

Last time, seven out of 35 candidates including one of BJP and two of Congress had declared criminal cases while none of BJD had such cases. Five candidates had declared serious criminal cases against them.

Santosh Dora of NBNSP, who is contesting from Sundargarh LS seat, has a murder case pending against him. Janardan Dehury of Congress from Sundargarh, Pradeep Purohit of BJP from Bargarh, Subash Mohapatra of Congress from Cuttack and Balram Singh Yadav, an Independent from Balangir have declared attempt-to-murder cases.

The ADR report said 13 candidates have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. Four contenders each from BJP, BJD and Congress are crorepatis besides one Independent candidate. The average assets per candidate contesting in this phase is Rs 3.05 crore. The average assets of BJP candidates is Rs 16.27 crore and that of BJD and Congress are Rs 4.58 crore and Rs 2.17 crore, respectively.

BJP’s Balangir candidate Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo is the richest with total assets worth over Rs 67.3 crore followed by BJD’s Sundargarh candidate Dilip Kumar Tirkey, who has declared owning assets of Rs 12.26 crore. BJP’s Sundargarh nominee and former Union minister Jual Oram has assets worth over Rs 8.63 crore.

NAP candidate Devika Sika from Bargarh is the poorest with assets of only Rs 10,222. Tirkey has the highest liabilities of Rs 1.58 crore, followed by Oram (Rs 1.03 crore) and BJD’s Surendra Singh Bhoi from Balangir (Rs 1.02 crore).

While 19 (47.5 pc) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between Class V and XII, 21 (52.5 pc) candidates have declared they are graduates and seven are post graduates. Ten candidates are aged between 25 to 40 years and 23 candidates are in the age group of 41 to 60 years. There are seven candidates whose age is between 61 and 70 years, the report stated.