West Bengal polls: 33 candidates with criminal cases, 15 crorepatis to contest in 6th phase

New Delhi: At least 15 crorepatis are in the fray for the sixth phase of the West Bengal assembly elections to be held on Thursday, while 33 have declared criminal cases against themselves, a study said on Monday. “Out of the 169 candidates analysed, 15 are crorepatis. The average of assets per candidate contesting in phase 6 of the West Bengal assembly elections is Rs 57.24 lakh,” said a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Among party wise crorepati candidates, 8 out of 24 are fielded by Trinamool Congress, 1 out of 25 candidates fromBJP, 1 out of 4 candidates from Congress, 1 out of 4 candidates by AIFB, 1 out of 8 candidates of CPI(M) and 2 out of 24 independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, it said. [caption id=“attachment_2670412” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] Out of the 169 candidates analysed, 33 have declared criminal cases against themselves, the report noted. “Among party wise candidates with criminal cases, 6 out of 25 candidates from BJP, 9 out of 24 candidates from AITC, 3 out of 8 candidates from CPI(M), 2 out of 4 candidates of AIFB, 1 out of 4 candidates fielded by INC, and 2 out of 24 independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits,” it added. Two constituencies – Panskura Paschim and Panskura Purba – in phase 6 of West Bengal assembly elections have 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases. A total of 32 out of the 169 candidates analysed have not declared their PAN details and 93 have not declared income tax details. On the education details of candidates, 71 have declared their education qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass, while 58 have declared having a qualification of graduate or graduate professional. As many as 34 candidates have declared themselves to be postgraduates, while 2 have declared they are doctorates and 2 are just literate. Also, 84 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years, while 80 are aged to be between 51 and 70 years. Five candidates have declared they are more than 70 years old. In the sixth phase of the West Bengal assembly election this year, 18 women candidates are contesting, the report said which has analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 169 candidates out of 170 who are contesting in phase 6 of the West Bengal assembly elections to be held on May 5, 2016. Across six phases, a total of 1,960 candidates have been analysed. Of 1,960 candidates, 244 are crorepatis, while 354 have declared criminal cases so far.