20 crorepatis in fray for last phase LS polls

Bhubaneswar : As many as 20 crorepatis are contesting in the six Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha scheduled to go to the polls in the last phase of the elections on June 1, Odisha Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Wednesday.

According to the ADR, out of the 66 candidates contesting in these six constituencies — Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj — 20 have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, with the average assets of the nominees in this phase amounting to Rs 3.83 crore.

Among the major parties, BJP candidates have an average asset value of Rs 27.12 crore, followed by BJD candidates with Rs 6.61 crore, and Congress aspirants with Rs 2.37 crore.

Baijayant Panda, the BJP nominee for Kendrapara, is the wealthiest among the candidates, with declared assets worth Rs 148.08 crore. Following him is independent candidate Sriram Pandey with Rs 18.23 crore, and sitting BJP MP Manjulata Mandal from Bhadrak with Rs 14.86 crore.

Candidates with lowest declared assets are Bhanumati Das of Utkal Samaj Party with Rs 1,500 (Jagatsinghpur), independent candidate Deepak Sankar Thakur Giri with Rs 6,000 (Balasore), and BSP’s Bibhuti Bhusan Majhi with Rs 6,061 (Jagatsinghpur).

ADR also reported that 15 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, with 10 facing serious criminal charges.

Educational qualifications among the candidates vary, with 19 having completed education between classes V and XII, and 43 being graduates or holding higher degrees. Additionally, two candidates hold diplomas, and two have declared themselves as just literate.