Chennai: One in two candidates of the major political parties is a crorepati. And, even more shockingly, one in four candidates contesting in the May 16 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is facing criminal cases.
The Tamil Nadu Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which analysed the sworn affidavits of 997 of the 1,107 candidates of major parties, said that out of the analysed candidates, 553 were crorepatis. “Out of 997 candidates analysed, 553 are crorepatis - 32 from INC, 64 from BJP, 156 from AIADMK, 133 fielded by DMK, 72 from PMK and 57 DMDK candidates have declared assets worth Rs 1 crore and above in their affidavits,” it said.
Congress's Nanguneri candidate H. Vasanthakumar is the richest candidate in the fray with a total asset of Rs 337 crore followed by DMK's Anna Nagar candidate M.K. Mohan with assets of Rs 170 crore, according to the analysis of the candidate's affidavits.
The third richest candidate is AIADMK supremo and RK Nagar candidate Jayalalithaa with declared assets of Rs 113 crore. There are two candidates with no assets. They are Karuppan V and Villupuram of the BJP contesting from the Chengam and Tirukkoyilur constituencies respectively. CPI’s Salem candidate A. Mohan has declared assets of Rs 6,500.
The average assets of the 997 major party candidates analysed is Rs 4.35 crore, the findings revealed. Among the major parties, the average assets per candidate of Congress are Rs 16.88 crore, TMC Rs 9.58 crore, DMK Rs 8.19 crore and AIADMK Rs 4.83 crore. A total of 114 candidates have not declared their PAN details including four candidates with assets of over Rs 11 crore, while 284 have not declared income tax details, it added.
ADR, Tamil Nadu Coordinator Dr Sudharshan said 283 candidates have declared there are criminal cases against them. He said that 157 (16 per cent) candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases like murder, attempt to murder, theft and crimes against women.
“Ten candidates from INC, 26 from BJP, 47 from AIADMK, 68 candidates of DMK, 66 from PMK, 41 from DMDK and 8 CPI (M) candidates have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits,” he said.
A total of 28 constituencies have three or more candidates from major parties with declared criminal cases. The survey has labelled these areas ‘red alert constituencies’. He said five candidates — T Ramachandran of CPI (Thali constituency), KPP Samy (DMK-Tiruvotriyur), R Hariharan (PMK-Vilavancode), R Kalidas (PMK-Kalasapakkam) and M Palaniyandi (DMK-Srirangam) — have declared charges related to murder (cases under IPC Sec 302). There were as many as three murder charges against the CPI candidate T Ramachandran of Thali.
Dr Sudarshan said 30 candidates have declared that attempt to murder cases (IPC Sec 307) were pending against them and eight candidates were facing cases related to crimes against women.
