Bhubaneswar: Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have presented an analysis of candidates for the first phase of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections having criminal background, financial, educational and other details.
Six (23%) out of 26 candidates who are contesting from four Lok Sabha constituencies – Berhampur, Kalahandi, Koraput and Nabarangpur – have declared their criminal cases and five of them have serious charges against them.
Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominees for Lok Sabha have declared criminal cases. While the Congress has three candidates who have criminal cases against them, BJD candidates for phase I have no criminal cases.
In terms of crorepati candidates, 10 out of 26 have assets worth more than `1 crore. V Chandrasekhar Naidu (Cong) who is contesting from Berhampur has assets worth Rs 36 crore while BJP candidate from Nabarangpur Balabhadra Majhi has assets of Rs 8 crore. Jayaram Pangi, BJP nominee from Koraput, has assets worth Rs 4 crore.
CPI (ML) candidate from Koraput, Rajendra Kendruka, has the lowest assets of all, Rs 565.
There are at least 10 candidates who have not filed their ITR details. In terms of education, 12 candidates (46%) have declared their academic qualification (between Class 5 and 12) while 14 (54%) candidates are graduates or above. Six candidates are graduates while two are post-graduates.
A dozen nominees have declared their age (between 25 and 50 years of age) while 13 (50%) candidates have announced their age between (51 and 70 years of age).
Only two women are contesting in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Odisha. The poll watch has analysed background of nominees for 28 Assembly constituencies for which 189 aspirants are trying their fortune.
Of the 189 candidates, 55 (29%) have declared their criminal cases and 35 of them have serious criminal cases.
Altogether, BJP has fielded 11 candidates who have criminal cases. While Congress has fielded 16 candidates with criminal antecedents, the BJD has fielded eight with criminal background for assembly election.
There are nine constituencies in phase I where three or more candidates have criminal cases. In terms of assets, 49 candidates are crorepatis with an average asset worth Rs 1.16 crore each.
Dharamgarh BJP nominee Anant Pratap Deo has assets worth Rs 27 crore. BJP has 11 crorepati nominees while Congress has 14 and BJD has 17 crorepatis.
As many as 94 candidates out of 189 have not declared their income tax details and interestingly it includes four with assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
As many as 101 candidates have declared their educational qualification which is between Class V and Class XII while 82 have declared their qualification as graduation or above.
Around 59 candidates have declared their age as between 25 and 40 years while 110 have declared their age as between 41 and 60 years. There are 19 candidates who are between 61 and 70 years of age.
Of the 189 candidates, 16 (9%) candidates are women who are contesting for Assembly.
