70 Crorepatis Contesting in 28 Assembly Seats of Odisha Going to Polls on May 13

Bhubaneswar: A per a report by the Odisha Election and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 70 candidates (29%) out of total 243, contesting in the first phase of assembly polls on May 13 in Odisha are crorepatis, the report said.

As per the report, the average assets per candidate contesting in the first phase of Assembly elections was Rs 1.21 crore.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has the highest average of Rs 4.49 crore. The richest candidate is Biplab Patro from the BJD as his declared assets is worth Rs 33 crore. He is contesting from Digapahadi in Ganjam district.

Two candidates, Ramesh Kumar Mahanand and Purna Chandra Majhi have declared zero assets.

Among the major parties, 25 (89%) out of 28 candidates from BJD, 14 (50%) out of 28 candidates from BJP, 14 (50%) out of 28 candidates from Congress and 2 (18%) out of 11 candidates from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Apart from Biplab Patra, the others in the top 10 Assembly candidates with highest assets in Odisha include, BJD candidate from Gopalpur Bikram Kumar Panda Rs 15.94 crore,  BJP candidate from Dharamgarh Sudhir Ranjan Pattjoshi Rs 12.01 crore, BJD candidate from Junagarh Dibya Shankar Mishra Rs 11.89 crore, BJD candidate from Jeypore Indira Nanda Rs 11.46 crore, BJD candidate from Chikiti Chinmayananda Srirup Deb Rs 10.57 crore, Congress candidate from Paralakhemundi Bijay Kumar Patnaik Rs 9.41 crore, BJD candidate from Khariar Adhiraj Mohan Panigrahi Rs 7.94 crore, Congress candidate from Nuapada Sarat Pattanayak Rs 7.31 crore, and Congress candidate from Jeypore  Tara Prasad Bahinipati Rs 6.24 crore.