Two out of top three richest candidates in Kerala are from ADMK

assembly-elections

Updated: May 12, 2016 15:50 IST



The main election fight in Kerala may be between the Congress-led UDF and the Left, but two of the three richest candidates in the assembly polls are from Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK.

This has been revealed by a study conducted by the Kerala Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,125 of the 1,203 candidates in the May 16 battle.

It said 78 candidates were not analysed due to unclear affidavits on the website of the Election Commission.

The richest candidate in Kerala is Biju Ramesh (Thiruvananthapuram) of the AIADMK, with Rs188 crore.

He is followed by Thomas Chandy (Kuttanad) of the NCP (Rs 92 crore) and C Abdul Kader (Perrumade), also of the AIADMK, with Rs 54 crore.

According to the election watchdogs, the seven candidates fielded in Kerala by the AIADMK, which rules neighbouring Tamil Nadu, have an average assets of Rs 35.14 crore.

Thirty-six Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) candidates have average assets of Rs 3.19 crore, followed by 85 Congress candidates (Rs 1.83 crore), 84 CPI-M candidates (Rs 1.51 crore) and 97 BJP candidates (Rs 1.03 crore).

Seven candidates, all independents, have declared zero assets. Three other candidates, including two independents and one from the BSP, have no immovable assets and their movable assets are worth Rs 100 each.

A total of 86% of CPI-M candidates (72 out of 84) have criminal cases, followed by 60%of CPI (15 out of 25), 44% of Congress (37 out of 85) and 43% of BJP candidates (42 out of 97).

According to the watchdogs, of the total 1,125 candidates, 311 (28%) have declared criminal cases against them.

Four candidates are battling murder and 19 attempt to murder charges.

A total of 669 candidates have studied between Class 5 and 12, 380 are graduates or above, 29 are simple literates and seven candidates are illiterate.