Chhattisgarh polls: 253 'crorepati' candidates in 2nd phase; Singh Deo richest
Raipur, Nov 10 (PTI) A total of 253 candidates in the second phase of Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh scheduled for November 17 are 'crorepatis', with Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader TS Singh Deo topping the list with assets of more than Rs 447 crore.
While there are 958 candidates in the fray for the November 17 polls, Chhattisgarh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in their report, said they had arrived at the figure of 253 after analysing details of only 953 candidates.
The analysis of five candidates could not be completed as their affidavits are either badly scanned or complete affidavits are not uploaded on the Election Commission of India website, they said.
As per the report released on Friday, the average worth of assets of candidates is Rs 2 crore.
It said 60 (86%) out of 70 candidates analysed from Indian National Congress, 57 (81%) out of 70 candidates analysed from Bharatiya Janata Party, 26 (42%) out of 62 candidates analysed from Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 19 (43%) out of 44 candidates analysed from Aam Aadmi Party have declared assets of more than Rs 1 crore.
The report pointed out that the three richest candidates are from the ruling Congress.
TS Singh Deo, a scion of the erstwhile royal family of Surguja who is contesting from his traditional Ambikapur seat, leads the list with assets of more than Rs 447 crore, followed by Ramesh Singh (Rs 73 crore plus) from Manendragarh seat and Amitesh Shukla (Rs 48 crore plus) from Rajim seat.
Incidentally, Singh Deo had declared assets of more than Rs 500 crore ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.
Three candidates with lowest assets in the second phase are National Youth Party candidate Rajratna Uikey (Rs 500) from Mungeli (SC) seat, Azad Janata Party's Kanti Sahu (Rs 1,000) from Raigarh and Mukesh Kumar Chandrakar (Rs 1,500) from Beltara.
Two Independent candidates, Kalawati Sarthi from Bhatgaon and Gautam Prasad Sahu from Beltara, as well as Johar Chhattisgarh Party's Yashwant Kumar Nishad from Kharsia have declared zero assets, the report said.
AAP's Vishal Kelkar, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and BJP's OP Chaudhary, a former IAS officer, are top three candidates with high income (self plus spouse plus dependent) declared in ITR, it said.
Kelkar has shown a total income of over Rs 2 crore (self plus spouse plus dependent) in the ITR followed by Bhupesh Baghel (Rs 1 crore plus) and Choudhary (Rs 1 core plus), it said.
As per the report, 499 (52%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5th and 12th standard, while 405 (42%) candidates have claimed they have completed graduation and above.
The report said 21 are diploma holders, 19 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and six have claimed to be illiterate. Three candidates have not given their educational qualifications.
A total of 130 (14%) women are contesting in the second phase, including 15 from Congress and 12 from BJP, the report said.
Among the 223 candidates in the fray for 20 seats that went to polls on November 7, the Aam Aadmi Party's Khadgraj Singh, who contested from Kawardha seat, led the list with assets of more than Rs 40 crore. PTI
