By IANS,
Raipur : As many as nine candidates in Chhattisgarh have criminals cases pending against them and seven have assets worth over Rs.1 crore (Rs.10 million), a NGO said here Saturday.
“There are nine candidates with criminal cases pending against them contesting Lok Sabha polls in Chhattisgarh,” Gautam Kumar Bandyopadhyay, coordinator of Chhattisgarh Election Watch, told IANS.
“Four candidates with criminal cases are contesting as independents while two candidates are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one each from the Congress, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and Gondwana Gantantra Party,” Bandyopadhyay said.
There are seven candidates who have declared assets of over Rs.1 crore. Of these, three are from the BJP, two from the Congress and two are independents.
In spite of them being multi-millionaires, four of them have not mentioned their PAN numbers, he said.
The average worth of Congress candidates is Rs.86 lakh (Rs.8.6 million) while that of BJP candidates is Rs.75 lakh (Rs.7.5 million). There are seven candidates with assets less than Rs.10,000, he said.
The state goes to polls Thursday for its 11 Lok Sabha seats.