Of the 1,478 participants in the first phase of Bengal’s battle, 20 per cent voted for clorepatis. The poorest person owns assets of Rs 500

KOLKATA: Nearly one-fifth of the 1,478 candidates voting in the first phase of Bengal polls are croprepatis, most of them TMC contenders. The poorest candidate is from New AJUP and has assets of only Rs 500 cr.Of the 152 BJP nominees, 106 have pending criminal cases and 96 of them have been named for serious crimes. In the TMC, 63 of the 148 nominees have pending criminal cases, 48 ​​of whom have serious criminal records.The figures were released by ADR and West Bengal Election Watch after analyzing the poll affidavits of 1,475 candidates, out of which three candidates had issues with their poll affidavits.228 candidates have assets between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore, while 46 candidates have assets between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore. 35 contestants claimed to have assets in excess of Rs 10 crore. Data shows that there are as many as 106 TMC candidates, 71 BJP candidates, 50 Congress candidates and 24 MCP candidates.Topping the list is TMC’s Janjipur candidate Jakir Hossain, who has assets of over Rs 133 crore, followed by the party’s Bajola candidate Goutam Mishra (Rs 105 crore) and Durgapur West contender Kabi Datta (Rs 72 crore).The poorest candidate is AJUP’s Rubiya Begam from Durgapur East with Rs 500 cr, followed by SUCI’s Sushrita Saren from Midnapore (Rs 700 cr) and Jalpaiguri’s Jashoda Barman (Rs 924 cr).The analysis showed that 23% of competitors had pending criminal cases, with 20% charged with serious crimes.