BHUBANESWAR: Altogether 103 candidates, 15% of the total 673 in the fray for first-phase assembly polls, are crorepatis, revealed an analysis of affidavits by Association for Democratic Reforms and Odisha Election Watch on Sunday. The ruling BJD leads the pack with 34 crorepatis.
BJP candidate for Rourkela assembly seat Dilip Ray is the richest among all with assets worth Rs 106.82 crore followed by Nitesh Gangdeb of the same party from Deogarh constituency with Rs 17.65-crore property. The third-richest is BJD legislator and party candidate for Kabisuryanagar constituency Sugnana Kumari Deo, who is worth Rs 13.82 crore. Eight candidates have declared 'zero' asset in their affidavits.
Party-wise average assets per candidate for BJD (70 candidates) is Rs 1.86 crore, Congress (70) Rs 1.32 crore and BJP (70) Rs 2.57 crore and for 43 AAP candidates it is Rs 32.79 lakh.
Out of 673 candidates, 104 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 1 lakh. Among BJD candidates, Priyanshu Pradhan for Chhatrapur constituency has declared lowest assets at Rs 10.43 lakh while for Congress, Makaranda Muduli from Rayagada constituency is at the bottom of the ladder with a measly Rs 10,258.
A total of 310 candidates have declared liabilities. Of 310, only 11 have outstanding debts of more than Rs 50 lakh. Ray has the highest liabilities worth Rs 2.71 crore followed by Naba Kishore Das of Congress (Jharsuguda) with Rs 2.60 crore and Bikram Kumar Panda of Congress (Berhampur) Rs 2.46 crore.
Ray has the highest income of Rs 1.58 crore according to last income tax (I-T) returns filed for 2012-13. Chakradhara Paik, an independent candidate from Mohana constituency, is next with Rs 1.11 crore followed by A U Singhdeo of BJD from Balangir with an income of Rs 50.50 lakh. Around 217 candidates, 32% of the total, have not declared PAN details while 452 candidates (67%) have not revealed annual income in their I-T returns.