15 crorepatis in fray in May 6 Bengal elections

Out of 83 candidates across parties contesting from the seven West Bengal seats in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 15 have assets worth over Rs 1 crore, while 23 have declared criminal cases against themselves, a study said on Saturday.

Among candidates who are in the fray for the fifth phase polls in the state, Trinamool Congress' outgoing MP from Sreerampore constituency, Kalyan Banerjee, has topped the crorepati list declaring over Rs 17 crore of assets, followed by the party's Barrackpore nominee and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi with assets worth more than Rs 6 crore, said the report.

The BJP's candidate from Hooghly constituency, Locket Chatterjee has declared over Rs 3 crore worth of assets, according to the study.

Apart from Banerjee and Trivedi, there are five Trinamool Congress candidates - Sajda Ahmed for Uluberia and Mamata Thakur for Bongaon declaring assets worth over Rs 2 crore each while party's nominee for Howrah Parsun Banerjee and Aparupa Poddar for Arambag having properties worth over Rs 1 crore each.

State's ruling Trinamool nominee for Hooghly Ratna De Nag declared Rs 3 crore of assets.

There are two Congress candidates -- Debabrata Biswas for Sreerampore and Jyoti Kumar Das for Arambag -- having assets worth Rs 2 crore and 1 crore respectively.

CPI-M's Uluberia nominee Maksuda Khatun declared Rs 1 crore of assets and party's Armabag candidate Sakti Mohan Das showed properties worth Rs 1 crore.

Average assets per candidate contesting from the seven constituencies in the fifth phase is Rs 75.24 lakh based on their self-sworn affidavits, according to an analysis done by West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms.

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for the seven Trinamool Congress nominees is over Rs 5 crore, while BJP and Congress candidates have average assets over Rs 86 lakh and 73 lakh each. Average assets of CPI (M) candidates in the fifth phase polls stand at over Rs 46 lakh.

The seven constituencies will go to the polls in the fifth phase of polls on May 6.

"Out of 83 candidates analyzed, 23 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves," the study said.

According to it, 36 candidates, out of 83, have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th standard while 44 candidates have declared having an education qualification of graduate or above and three candidates have declared to be just literate.
IANS