14 crorepatis in fray in April 18 Bengal elections

Out of the 42 candidates across parties contesting from the three north Bengal seats -- Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Raiganj -- in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 14 have assets worth over Rs 1 crore, while 13 have declared criminal cases against themselves, said a study released here on Saturday.

Three Trinamool Congress candidates -- Amar Singh Rai for Darjeeling, Bijoy Chandra Barman for Jalpaiguri and Raiganj's Kanaialal Agarwal who had switched over from the Congress -- declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates -- Raju Bista for Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri's Jayanta Kumar Roy -- have properties worth over Rs 1 crore, while the Congress' Darjeeling candidate Sankar Malakar, and Deepa Dasmunsi and CPI(M)'s Bhagirath Chandra Roy for Jalpaiguri are also crorepatis.

Average assets per candidate contesting from the three constituencies in the second phase is Rs 1.57 crore 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 three Trinamool Congress nominees is Rs 1.73 crore, while for the three BJP candidates it is Rs 5.62 crore. The Congress and CPI(M) candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.97 crore and Rs 1.45 crore, respectively.

Among all the candidates in three seats, Bijoy Kumar Das, an Independent candidate for Raiganj seat, has declared highest assets worth Rs 18.87 crore, while BJP's Raju Bista has shown over Rs 15 crore assets and Sankar Malakar has declared more than Rs 3 crore, according to the study.

The three constituencies will go to the hustings in the second phase of polls on April 18.

"Out of 42 candidates analysed, 13 (31 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves," the study said.

--IANS

bdc/nir