30 crorepatis in fray in last phase Bengal polls

Of 111 candidates across parties contesting from the nine West Bengal seats in the seventh and the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 30 have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, while 23 have declared criminal cases against themselves, said a study on Tuesday.

Among candidates who are in the fray for the seventh phase polls in the state, the Congress' Kolkata South candidate Mita Chakraborty has topped the crorepati list declaring over Rs 44 crore of assets, followed by the CPI-M's nominee for Jadavpur seat Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya with assets worth more than Rs 12 crore, said the report.

The Congress' Kolkata North candidate Syed Shahid Imam has declared over Rs 7 crore worth of assets, according to the study.

Among candidates with high income, CPI-M's Bhattacharya, a legal practitioner, has shown total income (self, spouse and dependent) of over Rs 1 crore in the financial year 2017-18, while the Congress candidate, Chakraborty, who has shown business as her source of income, has declared total income over Rs 1 crore in FY18.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Diamond Harbour's outgoing MP Abhishek Banerjee has declared over Rs 2 crore of total income including his own, spouse and dependent in FY18, the report said.

Average assets per candidate contesting from the nine constituencies in the last phase is Rs 1.35 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 asset per candidate for the nine Trinamool Congress nominees is over Rs 2 crore, while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress candidates have average assets over Rs 1 crore and Rs 7 crore each respectively. Average assets of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidates in this phase stand at over Rs 3 crore.

The nine constituencies -- Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat and Joynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata North and South will go to the polls in the seventh phase of polls on May 19.

"Out of 111 candidates analysed, 23 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves," the study said.

According to it, 40 candidates, out of 111, have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th standard while 70 candidates have declared having an education qualification of graduate or above.

--IANS

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