- 86 candidates have serious criminal cases against them.
- 2 candidates have never been to school, 2 under class-V.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha is going to hold its third phase of elections in the state on the 25th. There are 383 MLA candidates for 42 assembly constituencies. Among them, 381 MLA candidates have been analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch.
In the third phase of the election, 126 constituting 33% of the total MLA candidates are reported to be crorepatis.
Sanatan Mahakud, the BJD MLA candidate from Keonjhar Champua is the richest candidate of the third phase with assets worth 227.67 crores. Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, an independent candidate from Ghasipura, holds the second position with assets worth ₹122.86 crores. Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh, the BJP MLA candidate from Nayagarh, is in the third position with assets worth 120.56 crores.
Among the major parties, 36 out of 42 candidates analysed from BJD, 29 are from Congress, 28 from BJP and four from AAP have declared assets valued more than 1 crore. The average assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly elections 2024 in phase three is 3.47 crore.
Kailash Chandra Nayak, the Cuttack-Badamba MLA candidate from Samruddha Odisha is the poorest candidate with property valued at only 1000 rupees. Among other low-asset candidates, Sukanta Ghadai an Independent candidate from Brahmagiri has assets worth Rs 2,000 and Gopinath Nayak, a CPI (ML) candidate holds assets worth Rs 2,000 from Bhubaneswar North.
Among the MLA candidates of the third stage, two candidates have never been to school while two others have not even passed the fifth standard. The majority have educational qualifications ranging from 5th to 12th standard, with 210 candidates being graduates or above.
Out of the MLA candidates, 100 or 26% have criminal cases. 86 candidates have serious criminal cases against them. There are murder cases against 4 candidates and attempted murder cases against 26. Similarly, anti-women cases against 28 and a rape case against one’s name.
Among the major parties, 23 BJP candidates, one CPI(M) candidate, 13 Congress candidates and 12 BJD nominees have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
