Press Release:West Bengal Assembly Elections (Analysis of Criminal, Financial & Other Background details of Candidates in Phase 6) & Analysis of MLAs contesting again

[ADR India]

​​Press Release

Dear Friends,

West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 169 candidates out of 170 candidates who are contesting in Phase 6 of the West Bengal Assembly Elections to be held on 5^th, May 2016. Please find below a brief summary of the same. 

 

Candidate who was not analysed*

S.No	Name	Party	District	Constituency
1	SUDARSAN GHOSH DOSTIDAR	AITC	PURBO MEDINIPUR	MAHISADAL

* Affidavit badly scanned, not readable.

Criminal Background

Candidates with criminal cases: Out of the 169 candidates analysed, 33 (20%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

·         Candidates with serious criminal cases: 27 (16%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, theft, crimes against women etc.

·         Candidates with cases related to Murder: 4 candidates have declared charges related to Murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302).

·         Candidates with cases related to attempt to murder: 6 candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder (IPC Section-307).

·         Candidates with cases related to crimes against women: 5 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women.

·         Party wise candidates with criminal cases: 6 (24%) out of 25 candidates from BJP, 9 (38%) out of 24 candidates from AITC, 3 (38%) out of 8 candidates from CPI (M), 2 (50%) out of 4 candidates of AIFB, 1 (25%) out of 4 candidates fielded by INC, and 2 (8%) out of 24 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

·         Party wise Candidates with serious criminal cases:  6 (24%) out of 25 candidates from BJP, 7 (29%) out of 24 candidates from AITC, 2 (25%) out of 8 candidates from CPI (M), 2 (50%) out of 4 candidates of AIFB, 1 (25%) out of 4 candidates fielded by INC, and 2 (8%) out of 24 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

·         Red Alert constituencies*: 2 constituencies Panskura Paschim and Panskura Purba in Phase 6 of West Bengal assembly elections have 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

*Red Alert Constituencies are those which have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases contesting elections.

Financial Background

·         Share of wealth among candidates : The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in Phase 6 of assembly elections in West Bengal is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	No of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5crores and above	3	2%
1 crores to 5 crores	12	7%
20 lakhs 1 crores)	65	38%
less than 20 lakhs)	89	53%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates 

·         High asset candidates*:  The 3 richest candidates contesting in  Phase 6 of the West Bengal 2016 Assembly Elections are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Hemangshu Shekhar Mahapatra	Purbo Medinipur	Bhagabanpur	INC	57,98,642	17,58,85,500	18,16,84,142  18 Crore+	Y
2	Siraj Khan	Purbo Medinipur	Nandakumar	IND	13,07,37,979	3,99,00,000	17,06,37,979  17 Crore+	Y
3	Rabindra Nath Ghosh	Coochbehar	Natabari	AITC	1,66,73,333	3,88,31,000	5,55,04,333   5 Crore+	Y

 Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets 

·         Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 169 candidates analysed, 15 (9%) are crorepatis.

·         Party wise crorepati candidates: 8 (33%) out of 24 fielded by AITC, 1 (4%) out of 25 candidates from BJP, 1 (25%) out of4 candidates from INC, 1 (25%) out of 4 candidates fielded by AIFB, 1 (13%) out of 8 candidates of CPI (M) and 2 (8%) out of 24 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

·         Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in Phase 6 of the West Bengal Assembly Elections is Rs 57.24 Lakhs.

·         Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 25 BJP candidates is Rs 29.65 Lakhs, 24 AITC candidates have average assets of Rs 1. 02 crores, 24 SUCI (C) candidates have average assets worth Rs 21.25 Lakhs, 4 INC candidates have average assets worth Rs 4.81crore, average assets of 8 CPI (M) candidates is Rs 45.86 Lakhs, 8 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 2.44 Lakhs and 24 Independent candidates have average assets of Rs. 92.43 Lakhs.

·         Low asset candidates: The three candidates with lowest assets are as follows :

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Anil Chandra Barman Roy	Coochbehar	Sitai (SC)	SUCI(C)	6,668	0	6,668   6 Thou+	Y
2	Sushil Barman	Coochbehar	Mathabhanga (SC)	BJP	12,000	0	12,000   12 Thou+	Y
3	Babla Deb	Coochbehar	Natabari	Amra Bangalee	15,500	0	15,500   15 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

·         Candidates with high liabilities: The top three candidates with highest liabilities are as given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Siraj Khan	Purbo Medinipur	Nandakumar	IND	17,06,37,979  17 Crore+	13,06,72,404  13 Crore+	Y
2	Hemangshu Shekhar Mahapatra	Purbo Medinipur	Bhagabanpur	INC	18,16,84,142  18 Crore+	1,56,34,476   1 Crore+	Y
3	Abhimanyu Mondal	Purbo Medinipur	Haldia (SC)	Bharat Nirman Party	1,32,48,556   1 Crore+	49,00,000   49 Lacs+	Y

 Table: Top three candidates with high liabilities

·         Undeclared PAN:  A total of 32 (19%) out of the 169 candidates analysed have not declared their PAN details.

·         Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: 3 candidates have declared total annual income of more than Rs 20 Lakhs. These candidates are as given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District Name	Total Asset (Rs)	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	Dibyendu Adhikari	AITC	KANTHI DAKSHIN	PURBO MEDINIPUR	1,82,24,378   1 Crore+	2014-2015	25,42,332   25 Lacs+	9,01,224   9 Lacs+
2	Udayan Guha	AITC	DINHATA	COOCHBEHAR	3,17,59,056   3 Crore+	2015-2016	25,42,266   25 Lacs+	11,92,226   11 Lacs+
3	Suvendu Adhikari	AITC	NANDIGRAM	PURBO MEDINIPUR	62,60,742   62 Lacs+	2014-2015	22,93,218   22 Lacs+	22,93,218   22 Lacs+

Table: Candidates with high income as declared in ITR

*Total income includes income of self, spouse and dependents

·         Candidates who have not declared Income Tax Details*: 93 (55%) out of 169 candidates analysed have not declared income tax details.

* Some candidates may be exempted from filing Income Tax Returns 

·         Candidates with high Assets who have not declared Income Tax Details*: 8 candidates with assets worth more than Rs. 50 Lakhs have not declared Income Tax details. The top three candidates with highest assets who have not declared their IT returns are as given below: 

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Income (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given	Self Income
1	Akshay Thakur	Coochbehar	Dinhata	AIFB	0	98,80,748  98 Lacs+	Y	ITR not filed
2	Ranjan Malakar	Purbo Medinipur	Tamluk	Bharat Nirman Party	0	69,26,286  69 Lacs+	Y	ITR not filed
3	Narayan Kinkar Mishra	Purbo Medinipur	Panskura Paschim	BJP	0	67,34,164  67 Lacs+	N	ITR not filed

 Table: Top three candidates with highest assets who have not declared ITR details

* Some candidates may be exempted from filing Income Tax Returns

Other Background Details

·         Education details of candidates: 71 (42%) candidates have declared their education qualification to be between 5^th pass and 12^th pass, while 58 (34%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or graduate professional. 34 (20%) candidates have declared themselves to be postgraduates while 2 (1%) candidates have declared they are Doctorates and 2 (1%) candidates have declared they are just literate.

·         Age details of candidates: 84 (50%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 80 (47%) candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 70 years. 5 (3%) candidates have declared they are more than 70 years old.

·         Gender details of candidates: 18 (11%) women candidates are contesting in Phase 6 of the West Bengal assembly election this year.

​Analysis of Asset Comparison of Re contesting MLAs​

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West Bengal Election Watch (WBEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analyzed the affidavits of 245 outgoing MLAs who are contesting again in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly Elections.

​ Please find below a brief summary of the same. ​

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• Average Assets in 2011 Elections: The average assets of these 245 re-contesting MLAs fielded by various parties including independents in 2011 were Rs 60.11 lakhs (Rs. 60, 11,270).
• Average Assets in 2016 Elections: The average assets of these 245 re-contesting MLAs in 2016 is Rs 1.27 crores (Rs. 1, 27, 27,880).
• Average Asset change from 2011 to 2016: The average assets of these 245 re- contesting MLAs, between the West Bengal Elections of 2011 and 2016 increased by Rs. 67.16 lakhs (67, 16,610).
• Percentage change in assets from 2011 to 2016 Average percentage increase in assets for these 245 re-contesting MLAs is 112%.

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For a consolidated analysis of the West Bengal 2016 Elections (Phase 1 to Phase 6), please see the following link: http://goo.gl/cGFEsr

Media and Journalist Helpline   +91 80103 94248 Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj.Gen. Anil Verma (Retd) Head National Election Watch, Association for Democratic Reforms 011 4165 4200, +91 88264 79910 a...@adrIndia.org, anil...@adrindia.org

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar IIM Ahmedabad (Retd.) Founder Member, National Election Watch, Association for Democratic Reforms +91 99996 20944 jchh...@gmail.com

Prof Trilochan Sastry IIM Bangalore Founder Member, National Election Watch, Association for Democratic Reforms +91 94483 53285 trilo...@iimb.ernet.in

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