While the Bharatiya Janata Party has the highest number of candidates with criminal cases contesting in phase five, the Trinamool Congress has the richest ones as seven constituencies are set to go to the polls in West Bengal on Monday.
The constituencies are Hooghly, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Barrackpore, Bongaon and Howrah.
Central paramilitary forces are deployed in all of the polling booths. A total of 11,691,889 voters will elect from 83 candidates in phase five.
Six (86%) of BJP’s seven candidates have criminal cases against them, while three each of the TMC and the CPI(M) have similar casesagainst them. Two of Congress candidates also featured in the list. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an organisation for election monitoring and analysis, has come up with the statistics.
The ADR data also indicates that TMCs candidates — with an average property of “five crore plus” — are the richest. The BJP is distant second with an average property size of “85 lakh plus.”
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee is the richest among the candidates, with a declared property of more than 17 crore, the ADR report noted.
Key candidates
Among the key candidates are BJPs’ actor turned politician Locket Chatterjee in Hooghly and another actor Joy Banerjee in Uluberia; TMC candidates former national football team captain Prasun Banerjee in Howrah and Sajda Begum in Uluberia and CPI(M)’s Maksuda Khatun.
All eyes would be on Barrackpore seat where the BJP’s Arjun Singh, who recently left the TMC, is contesting against the TMC’s incumbent MP Dinesh Trivedi.
