17 Crorepati Candidates in Fray for May 13 Lok Sabha Polls in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Out of the 37 candidates in the fray for the voting for Lok Sabha seats in Odisha on May 13, a total of 17 candidates are crorepatis, which is at 46% of the total contestants. This was stated in the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report released on Saturday.

Voters in Berhampur, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Koraput parliamentary seats and 28 Assembly seats under them will vote in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls on May 13. All the four candidates of BJD and BJP have assets worth over Rs one crore, while three out of four Congress candidates are crorepatis.

The average movable and immovable assets, furnished in the affidavit by 37 candidates, stand at Rs 3.70 crore.

The average assets of BJP, Congress and BJD candidates are valued at Rs 13.76 crore, Rs 3.63 crore and Rs 3.11 crore, respectively.

BJP candidate Malvika Devi with total assets of over Rs 41 crore, contesting from Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat, is the richest among the 37 candidates contesting in the first phase LS polls in Odisha. She is followed by Congress’s Berhampur LS seat contestant V Chandra Shekhar at more than Rs 28 crore.

SUCI’s Pramila Pujari contesting from Koraput reserved LS seat is the candidate with the lowest asset at Rs 20,626.

The report also adds that fourteen (38%) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th standard, while 22 (59%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above, and one candidate has declared himself to be just literate.