33 with criminal cases, 15 crorepatis in Bengal last phase polls

At least 33 candidates have criminal cases pending against them while 15 candidates are crorepatis of the 170 contestants in the fray in the sixth and last phase of the West Bengal assembly elections.

Twenty five constituencies spread across the twin districts of Cooch Behar and East Midnapore will go to the polls on May 5 in the last phase.

According to a report released by the West Bengal Election Watch, of the 33 candidates with criminal cases, 27 face serious charges including murder.

Trinamool with seven has fielded the most number of candidates with criminal cases, followed by the BJP with six, while the CPI-M and the Forward Bloc each have two such nominees.

The BJP's Dadhiram Ray, contesting from Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar, faces the most number of criminal charges, 118, of which 54 are serious charges.

On the financial front, there are 15 crorepatis (multi-millionaires) in the fray.

The Trinamool heads the crorepati list with eight nominees, while the CPI-M, Congress and the Forward Bloc each have one such nominee.

The average assets of all the candidates in this phase is Rs.57.24 lakh.

The Congress's Hemangshu Sekhar Mahapatra Bhagabanpur is the wealthiest candidate with assets in excess of Rs.18 crore.

On the whole, 354 candidates have declared criminal cases and 244 are crorepatis out of the total 1,960 candidates in the fray across the state's 294 constituencies.

The Trinamool with 86 candidates heads the nominees with criminal cases followed by the BJP's 66, the CPI-M's 58 and the Congress's 41.

Of the 244 crorepatis, 76 are from the Trinamool, 52 from the BJP, 47 from the CPI-M and 31 from the Congress.

--IANS

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