Bhubaneswar: As many as 412 (32%) out of the 1283 of the 1285 candidates contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 are crorepatis, revealed an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch released on Monday.
According to the ADR report, there has been a 5% increase in the number of crorepati candidates as compared to the 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections. In the 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, out of 1121 candidates, 304(27%) were crorepatis.
The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties, 128(87%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJD, 96(65%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJP, 88(61%) out of 145 candidates analysed from INC and 11(27%) out of 41 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.
Among the top 3 candidates with the highest declared assets, contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 BJP candidate from Rourkela Dilip Kumar Ray tops the list with total assets worth Rs 3,13,53,34,845 (313 crore+) followed by the BJD candidate from Champua Sanatan Mahakud Rs 2,27,67,62,601 (227crore+) and BJD candidate from Basta Subasini Jena Rs 1,35,17,87,484 (135+).
On the other hand, the analysis revealed that five candidates have declared zero assets.
They are Independent candidate from Bhawanipatna Ramesh Kumar Mahanand, the BSP candidate from Rayagada Purna Chandra Majhi, Independent candidate from Kantabanji Sohan Sipka, Independent candidate from Dhamnagar Sanjay Kumar Das, and the Ambedkarite Party of India candidate from Korei Gopal Krushna Mohanty.
