244 crorepati candidates in West Bengal polls, TMC tops chart with 114

KOLKATA: There are about 244 crorepatis out of 1,961 candidates contesting the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections, with ruling Trinamool Congress leading the list at 114, a survey said.

"Out of 1,961 candidates contesting in this year's elections, 244 candidates are crorepatis," an analysis conducted by the West Bengal Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

BJP is second on the list with 46 crorepati candidates, while Congress (31), Independent (19), CPIM (13), BSP (4), RSP and AIFB share two each and 11 other political outfits, including RJD, have one crorepati candidates each, the survey said.

Among the 1,961 candidates, 81 out of the 245 sitting MLAs are re-contesting in this year's elections and are crorepatis, it stated.

"The growth is about 112 per cent. In 2011, the average assets of those 245 MLAs were Rs 60.11 lakh, while it rose to Rs 1.27 crore in 2016," the analysis said.

In fact, among the highest growth of assets in top three sitting MLAs who are contesting is that of state Minister for Disaster Management, Javeb Khan.

"The growth of the Kasba MLA's asset was around 598 per cent. In 2011 his total assets valued to Rs 2.16 crore, which rose to Rs 17.29 crore in 2016," the survey read.

Khan was followed by fellow party MLA Saumen Kumar Mahapatra and Amit Mitra whose assets rose by around 344 and 66 per cent respectively, it said.

While Mahapatra, the state Water Investigation and Development minister had a total asset of Rs 1.76 crore in 2011, it increased to Rs 7.83 crore in 2016.