West Bengal Assembly polls 2016: 61 out of 418 candidates in third phase have assets over Rs. 1 crore

Around 15 percent of the candidates in the third phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections â€” 61 of the 418  â€” have declared themselves to be "crorepatis," with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Somabrata Mandal at the top of the list. However, majority of candidates contesting in the third phase — to be held on April 21, 2016, in the Burdwan, Kolkata North, Murshidabad and Nadia regions â€” have assets less than Rs. 10 lakh. 

As many as 13 candidates have declared assets of above Rs.5 crore, while another 13 have assets between Rs. 2 crore and Rs 5 crore. As many as 20 percent of the candidates have assets between Rs 50 lakh and Rs. 2 crore, while 126 candidates have assets from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh. The largest chunk of candidates have assets worth less than Rs. 10 lakh.

Candidates with the highest assets and income, according to their Income tax returns (ITR) declarations, belonged to Kolkata North and Murshidabad regions. BJP leader Somabrata Mandal, from Shyampukur in Kolkata North, had assets worth above Rs. 28 crore, while Murshidabad's Jakir Hossain and Dilip Saha from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had assets worth Rs 21 crore and Rs 19 crore, respectively. According to their ITR, Hossain had the maximum income followed by Mandal and Saha, a statement from the Association for Democratic Reforms said.

Two candidates had declared they had no asset, while three said they had assets worth a few hundred rupees.

As many as 27 out of the 62 candidates from the TMC have assets above Rs. 1 crore, while 14 of the 62 BJP candidates, 11 of the 26 Congress and two of the 38 Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidates have assets above Rs. 1 crore.

The report also revealed that 19 percent candidates out of the 418, who are contesting 62 seats in the third phase, have criminal charges against them.