Kolkata: Fifty candidates in the third
phase of West Bengal assembly elections have criminal cases
against them, a civil society initiative on Thursday said quoting a
study carried out by it.
Out of 293 candidates in the fray for the third phase,
54 had criminal cases against them, 34 of them serious charges
including murder, attempt to murder and extortion, state
coordinator of Election Watch Biplab Halim said.
Halim said all major parties had given tickets to
candidates with pending criminal cases.
Trinamool Congress had 29 such candidates, BJP 13,
CPI-M 10 and Congress and RSP one each, he said.
The study also revealed that 31 candidates were
crorepatis, while 100 candidates declared that they had never
filed Income Tax returns. 57 had not given PAN details, Halim
said.
Out of 31 crorepati candidates, 16 belonged to
Trinamool Congress, seven from BJP, six in the CPI-M, and one
each in AIFB and BSP.
The affidavits submitted by the candidates to the
Election Commission revealed that Trinamool Congress candidate
of Maheshtala constituency, Kasturi Das, was the richest
candidate in the phase with assets of Rs 7.18 crore.
She was followed by Trinamool Congress candidate from
Khardah Amit Kumar Mitra with assets amounting to Rs 7.08
crore and BJP candidate from the Rashbehari seat Jiban Kumar
Sen with a total asset of around Rs 5.45 crore.
CPI-M candidates, Narain Prasad Jain of Bhawanipore
seat and Fuad Halim in the Ballygunj seat were also crorepatis
with assets amounting to Rs 4.38 crore and Rs 3.84 crore
respectively.
On the other hand, young CPI-M candidate Satarup
Ghosh from Kasba constituency declared that he had only Rs 308
cash in hand, the study revealed.
The list of 100 candidates, who never filed IT
Returns, included Jiban Mukhopadhyay of Trinamool Congress
(having Rs 1.82 crore in assets), CPI-M candidates Tapas
Chatterjee and Land and Land Reforms Minister Abdur Razzak
Mollah, had assets amounting to Rs 93 lakh and Rs 60 lakh
respectively.
Altogether 55 candidates did not provide PAN card
details.
PTI
