73% of newly elected MLAs in Odisha are 'crorepatis'

Bhubaneswar: Seventy-three per cent of the newly elected MLAs in Odisha are 'crorepatis' with BJD's Sanatan Mahakud the richest legislator having total assets worth Rs 227.67 crore, a report said.

The Odisha Assembly has 147 members.

Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 147 elected MLA candidates and found that 73 per cent of the newly elected MLAs in 2024 are 'crorepatis' while 95 (65 per cent) 'crorepati' MLAs were elected in 2019 polls.

Out of 107 crorepati MLAs, 52 candidates are from BJP, 43 from BJD, 9 from Congress, 1 from CPI (M) and 2 independent candidates.

The BJP won 78 Assembly seats while BJD secured 51, Congress 14, three independent nominees emerged victorious and CPI (M) won one seat in the 2024 Assembly polls.

Out of the 147 winning candidates, 85 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, which includes 67 candidates who are facing serious criminal cases.

As per the report, 46 out of 78 winning MLA candidates from BJP and 12 out of 51 winning MLA candidates from BJD have declared that they are facing serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Similarly, five out of 14 winning assembly candidates from Congress, one of CPI (M) and three independent winning candidates are also facing serious criminal cases, it said.

The average assets per winning candidate in the Odisha Assembly elections is Rs 7.37 crore while it was Rs 4.41 crore in the 2019 Assembly elections.

Among the winning MLA candidates, Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud (BJD) is the richest with total assets of Rs 227.67 crore. BJD’s Subasini Jena, who won the election from the Balasore assembly segment, is the second richest MLA with total assets of Rs 135.17 crore.

Three candidates with the lowest assets are BJP's Sanjali Murmu (Rs 35,076) who won from the Bangriposi Assembly seat, Congress candidate Mangu Khilla (Rs 1.47 lakh) from Chitrakonda assembly segment and Congress' Pabitra Saunta (Rs 2.90 lakh) who won from Lakshmipur Assembly constituency, the report said.

As many as 43 winning candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between class 5 and 12 pass, while 97 winning candidates have an educational qualification of graduate and above and 7 others are diploma holders.

Out of the total 147 winning candidates, 68 are of the age between 25 and 50 years while 79 have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years, it said.

Moreover, the number of women candidates in the state assembly decreased to 11 from 13 elected in 2019 polls.