BHUBANESWAR: As many as six Lok Sabha and 55 assembly candidates out of the total 26 Lok Sabha and 159 assembly candidates in the poll fray for the first phase of election on April 11 in the state have criminal cases. Of them five LS candidates have serious criminal cases against them including two each from BJP and congress and one from CPI (ML) Red Star. The serious criminal offences include assault, murder, kidnap, rape related crimes, offences under prevention of corruption act.

“The main objective of the analysis of affidavits of the candidates was to create awareness among voters about the candidates and help them make an informed choice while selecting their representative,” said Ranjan Mohanty, state coordinator of Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR), an NGO working on electoral reforms.

The first phase of elections will be held in four LS constituencies including Berhampur, Kalahandi, Koraput and Nabarangpur and 28 assembly constituencies under them.

Among them 39% Lok Sabha and 26% assembly candidates are crorepatis, reveals an analysis by the ADR.
V Chandrasekhar Naidu, congress candidate for Berhampur Lok Sabha is the richest candidate with assets worth Rs 36 crore while Rajendra Kendrua CPI (ML)Red Star candidate for Koraput LS has the lowest asset of Rs 565. The second and third richest candidates include BJP’s Nabarangpur and Koraput LS candidates Balabhadra Majhi and Jayram Pangi respectively.
Other heavyweight leaders who will try their luck in the first phase like state BJP president and Kalahandi LS candidate Basant Panda has assets worth Rs 95.47 lakh while Congress’s Koraput LS candidate Saptagiri Ulaka has assets worth Rs 3.75 crore.
While the average assets per candidate in the first phase LS elections is Rs2.67 crore while the average assets for Congress party candidate is Rs 10 crore, Rs four crore for BJP candidates and Rs two crore for BJD candidates.

Of the total 26 candidates in the fray 12 have educational qualification between class V and XII while 14 candidates are graduates and above.

Among the 189 assembly candidates 55 (29%) have declared criminal cases against them and 35 (19%) have serious criminal cases against them. As many as 16 of the total 27 Congress candidates have criminal cases, while 11 out of the 28 BJP candidates have criminal cases against them. Nine of the total 28 BJD candidates have criminal cases, the ADR report said. 

BJP’s Dharamgarh assembly constituency candidate Ananta Pratap Deo is the richest with assets worth Rs 27 crore followed by Lingaraj Chaudhury from Congress for Berhampur has assets worth Rs 17 crore and BJD’s Digapahandi candidate Surya Narayan Patro has assets worth Rs 16 crore. Two candidates have declared zero assets.

Among the parties BJD candidates have the highest average asset of Rs 2.58 crore, BJP has average asset of Rs 2.06 crore and Congress has average asset of Rs 1.95 crore. Of the total 189 candidates 94 (50%) have not declared income tax among whom are four with high assets including BJD’s Paralakhamundi candidate Kalyani Gajapathi with assets above Rs 3 crore.

In the assembly segment 101 (53%) candidates have qualification between class V and XII while 82 (43%) candidates are graduates and above.

Only two female candidates are contesting in LS seats and 16 women are in fray for assembly seats in the first phase elections in the state.