As Phase II of the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 approaches on May 20, attention turns to the financial profiles of candidates vying for office.

According to reports by Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of the 265 candidates contesting across 35 constituencies, 95 candidates, or 36%, are crorepatis.

The average assets per candidate stand at Rs 3.98 crore.

Notably, Dilip Ray of the BJP leads the list with total assets worth Rs 313 crore, followed by BJD’s Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo with Rs 73 crore and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik with Rs 71 crore. Other prominent figures include Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo of BJP with Rs 67 crore and Saroj Kumar Meher of BJD with Rs 62 crore.

On the other end of the spectrum, candidates with the lowest assets include Pradipa Sahu (Independent) from Boudh with Rs 7,000, Abhiram Dharua (All India Forward Bloc) from Kantabanji with Rs 8,592 and Satyananda Bohidar (IND) from Titilagarh with Rs 11,000.