Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik and his son Nabajyoti Patnaik are the richest among the candidates in fray in constituencies going to polls in the fourth and final phase elections in Odisha.
According to the data published by the Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Nabajyoti is the wealthiest among the Lok Sabha candidates in constituencies going to polls in the fourth phase. Nabajyoti who has declared assests over Rs 104 crore assets is contesting from Balasore Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket. He is followed by BJD’s Balasore and BJP’s Kendrapara Lok Sabha candidates Rabindra Jena and Baijayant Panda, respectively. While Rabindra owns assets worth Rs 72 crore, Baijayant has assets worth Rs 57 crore.
Niranjan, who is contesting from Bhandaripokhari constituency, is the richest among the MLA candidates in fray with assets over Rs 60 crore. Likewise, Congress’ candidate from Jagatsinghpur Assembly Constituency Chiranjib Biswal and BJD’s Pranab Kumar Balabantaray from Dharmasala are the second and third richest MLA candidates respectively. While Biswal has declared assets over Rs 33 crore, Balabantaray owns assets to the tune of Rs 17 crore.
Briefing reporters, Ranjan Kumar Mohanty, state coordinator of Odisha Election Watch said that there are 16 candidates who have assets more than Rs 5 crore. As many as 32 candidates have declared assests in the range of Rs 2 and 5 crore while 65 candidates own assets between Rs 50 lakh and 2 crores, Mohanty added.
In the fourth and final phase in Odisha, six Lok Sabha constituencies - Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur along with 41 Assembly segments therein will go to polls on April 29.