Out of 383 candidates in the fray for the third phase Assembly elections in Odisha, BJD candidate from Champua Sanatan Mahakud and the Independent nominee from Ghasipura Soumya Ranjan Patnaik are richest, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch.

Mahakud owns properties worth Rs 227.67 crore while Patnaik has Rs 122.86 crore assets.

As many as 126 candidates contesting Assembly elections are ‘crorepati’.

42 assembly segments under six parliamentary constituencies- Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Puri and Sambalpur will go to polls in the third phase elections in Odisha on May 25.

The ADR report revealed that BJP candidate from Nayagarh Assembly segment, Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh is the third richest nominee with movable and immovable assets worth Rs 120.56 crore.

“Among the major parties, 36 out of 42 candidates analysed from BJD, 29 are from Congress, 28 from BJP and four from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore,” the report said.

The average assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly elections 2024 (phase-III) is Rs 3.47 crore.

With assets worth Rs 1000, Samruddha Odisha’s Kailash Chandra Nayak is the poorest candidate. He is contesting from the Baramba MLA segment.

Other low-asset candidates are Independent candidate Sukanta Ghadai (Rs 2,000) from Brahmagiri and CPI (ML) Red Star nominee Gopinath Nayak (Rs 2,000) from Bhubaneswar North.

Out of 381 candidates analysed, 100 candidates have declared criminal cases against them, among whom, 86 are facing serious criminal cases.

Among the major parties, 23 BJP candidates, one CPI(M) candidate, 13 Congress candidates and 12 BJD nominees have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.