The majority of candidates of leading parties in the fray for the 147 Assembly seats in Odisha are crorepati with the ruling BJD topping the list with 87 per cent of its contestants owning wealth of over Rs 1 crore.
The role of money power in the elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates, the polls watch bodies – the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch (OEW) – said on Monday in a report.
Among the major parties, 128 (87%) of the total 147 candidates analysed from the BJD, 96 (65%) analysed from the BJP, 88 (61%) of the 145 candidates analysed from Congress, and 11 (27%) out of 41 candidates analysed from the AAP have declared assets valued at more than Rs 1 crore, the report said.
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 is Rs 2.89 crore. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections.
The average assets of 1,121 candidates in the fray stood at Rs 1.69 crore.
Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 145 Congress candidates is Rs 3.95 crore while 147 BJP candidates are in legal possession of Rs 6.54 crore on average. On the other hand, 147 BJD candidates have average assets of Rs 10.24 crore and 41 AAP candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.30 crore, ADR-OEW report stated.
BJP’s Dilip Kumar Ray, contesting the Rourkela Assembly seat, is the richest of all with declared assets to the tune of Rs 313 crore followed by BJD’s Sanatan Mahakud (Rs 227 crore) who contested the Champua Assembly seat in Keonjhar district. BJD’s Subasini Jena from Basta seat under Balasore parliamentary constituency with declared assets of Rs 135 crore figures third in the list of millionaire contestants in the Assembly polls.
There are five candidates who have declared zero assets in their poll affidavits, the report concluded.