Press Release: West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016 Phase 2 (Analysis of Criminal, Financial & Other Background Details of candidates)

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Apr 12, 2016, 7:59:42 AM4/12/16

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Press Release

Dear Friends,

West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 383 candidates who are contesting in the Phase 2 of West Bengal Assembly Elections to be held on 17^th, April 2016.

Criminal Background

· Candidates with criminal cases: Out of all the 383 candidates, 68 (18%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

· Candidates with serious criminal cases: 59 (15%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft, crimes against women etc.

· Candidate with cases related to Rape: 1 candidate namely Efrajul Hoque of BSP from Harischandrapur constituency has declared 1 charge related to rape (Indian Penal Code Section-376).

· Candidates with cases related to Murder: 6 candidates have declared charges related to Murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302).

· Candidates with cases related to attempt to murder: 9 candidates have declared cases of attempt to murder (IPC Section-307).

· Candidates with cases related to crimes against women: 8 candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women.

· Party wise candidates with criminal cases: 13 (25%) out of 53 candidates from BJP, 13 (24%) out of 55 candidates from AITC, 11 (65%) out of 17 candidates from CPI(M),2 (5%) out of 43 candidates of BSP, 6 (26%) out of 23 candidates fielded by INC, and 11 (18%) out of 62 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

· Party wise Candidates with serious criminal cases: 12 (23%) out of 53 candidates from BJP, 11 (20%) out of 55 candidates from AITC, 11 (65%) out of 17 candidates from CPI(M), 1 (2%) out of 43 candidates of BSP, 5 (22%) out of 23 candidates fielded by INC, and 10 (16%) out of 62 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

· Red Alert constituencies*: 7 constituencies namely Kalchini (ST), Malda (SC), Rampurhat, Alipurduars, Hemtabad (SC), Murarai and Chopra in Phase 2 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 2 of assembly elections in West Bengal is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	No of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
1 crores and above	56	15%
50 lakhs to 1 crores	51	13%
5 lakhs to 50 lakhs	157	41%
less than 5 lakhs	119	31%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

· High asset candidates*: The 3 richest candidates contesting in Phase 2 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	Bhaichung Bhutia	DARJEELING	SILIGURI	AITC	3,94,23,054	13,47,00,000	17,41,23,054 17 Crore+	Y
2	Asok Kumar Chattopadhyay	BIRBHUM	SURI	AITC	1,33,36,705	12,21,00,000	13,54,36,705 13 Crore+	Y
3	James Kujur	JALPAIGURI	KUMARGRAM (ST)	AITC	52,94,530	7,59,51,041	8,12,45,571 8 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

· Party wise crorepati candidates: 56 or (15%) candidates of the 383 contesting candidates in Phase 2 of the West Bengal Assembly Elections have declared assets worth over Rs 1 Crore. 23 (42%) out of 55 candidates from AITC, 10 (19%) out of 53 candidates from the BJP, 8 (35%) out of 23 candidates from the INC, 4 (9%) out of 43 candidates from the BSP, 1 (6%) out of 17 candidates from CPI(M) and 4 (7%) out of 62 Independent candidates are crorepatis.

· Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in Phase 2 of the West Bengal Assembly Elections is Rs 54.21 Lakhs.

· Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 53 BJP candidates is Rs 63.14 Lakhs, 55 AITC candidates have average assets of Rs 1.57 crores, 32 SUCI (C) candidates have average assets worth Rs 8.38 Lakhs, 23 INC candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.01 crore, average assets of 17 CPI(M) candidates are Rs 36.79 Lakhs, 43 BSP candidates have average assets of Rs 28.49 Lakhs and 62 Independent candidates have average assets of Rs. 27.59 Lakhs.

· Zero asset candidates: 3 candidates contesting in Phase 2 of the West Bengal 2016 Assembly Elections have declared Zero assets. They are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Benoy Kumar Das	UTTAR DINAJPUR	RAIGANJ	IND	0	0	0	N
2	Khagen Das	BIRBHUM	DUBRAJPUR (SC)	Bahujan Mukti Party	0	0	0	N
3	Sandip Roy	BIRBHUM	MAYURESWAR	IND	0	0	0	N

Table: Candidates with Zero assets

· Low asset candidates: The three candidates with lowest assets are as follows (these names exclude candidates who have declared zero assets) :

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Swadhin Dului	BIRBHUM	SURI	SUCI(C)	100	0	100 1 Hund+	N
2	Amar Loksom	DARJEELING	KALIMPONG	Gorkha Rashtriya Congress	500	0	500 5 Hund+	Y
3	Dhurba Dewan	DARJEELING	KURSEONG	Gorkha Rashtriya Congress	500	0	500 5 Hund+	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	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)
1	Asok Kumar Chattopadhyay	BIRBHUM	SURI	AITC	1,33,36,705 1 Crore+	12,21,00,000 12 Crore+	13,54,36,705 13 Crore+	4,31,06,920 4 Crore+
2	Ali Mortuza Khan	BIRBHUM	MURARAI	INC	3,79,97,073 3 Crore+	1,52,00,000 1 Crore+	5,31,97,073 5 Crore+	1,63,00,000 1 Crore+
3	Sanvarlal Kedia	MALDA	HARISCHANDRAPUR	BJP	2,20,31,910 2 Crore+	1,09,65,000 1 Crore+	3,29,96,910 3 Crore+	1,26,66,493 1 Crore+

Table: Top three candidates with high liabilities

· Undeclared PAN: A total of 84 (22%) out of the 383 candidates analysed candidates have not declared their PAN details.

· Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: 6 candidates have declared total annual income of more than Rs 30 Lakhs. These candidates are as given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District	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	Akramul Hoque	CPI(M)	CHOPRA	UTTAR DINAJPUR	71,28,784 71 Lacs+	2015-2016	71,81,232 71 Lacs+	71,81,232 71 Lacs+
2	Asok Kumar Chattopadhyay	AITC	SURI	BIRBHUM	13,54,36,705 13 Crore+	2014-2015	55,92,280 55 Lacs+	12,47,839 12 Lacs+
3	Ramprasad Das	BJP	DUBRAJPUR (SC)	BIRBHUM	47,47,230 47 Lacs+	2015-2016	35,59,104 35 Lacs+	31,55,016 31 Lacs+
4	Bhaichung Bhutia	AITC	SILIGURI	DARJEELING	17,41,23,054 17 Crore+	2014-2015	34,99,390 34 Lacs+	34,99,390 34 Lacs+
5	Srikumar Mukherjee	CPI	ITAHAR	UTTAR DINAJPUR	1,82,06,608 1 Crore+	2014-2015	34,14,213 34 Lacs+	15,91,142 15 Lacs+
6	Abu Nasar Khan Choudhury	AITC	SUJAPUR	MALDA	3,68,64,964 3 Crore+	2013-2014	30,15,112 30 Lacs+	20,42,999 20 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*: 215 (56%) out of 383 candidates 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*: 18 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)	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Santosh Kumar Balo	JALPAIGURI	ALIPURDUARS	IND	0	11,51,513	2,28,00,000	2,39,51,513 2 Crore+	Y
2	Basudeb Debsharma	UTTAR DINAJPUR	KALIAGANJ (SC)	BSP	0	10,75,000	2,00,00,000	2,10,75,000 2 Crore+	N
3	Dipali Biswas	MALDA	GAZOLE (SC)	CPI(M)	0	16,87,689	1,18,50,000	1,35,37,689 1 Crore+	Y

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: 206 (54%) candidates have declared their education qualification to be between 5^th pass and 12^th pass, while 101 (26%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or graduate professional, 51 (13%) candidates have declared themselves to be postgraduates, 10 (3%) candidates have declared they are Doctorates, whereas 9 (2%) candidates have declared they are simple literates.

· Age details of candidates: 236 (62%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 146 (38%) candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years. Only 1 candidate has disclosed to be older than 80 years of age.