Of the 178 candidates in fray for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in Maharashtra on April 18, 45 are crorepatis while 38 have criminal cases against them.
A report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed 178 of the 179 candidates from the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies on their criminal, financial and educational background, gender and other details.
As per the ADR report, 21% candidates in Maharashtra have declared criminal cases against themselves, and 13% of the total candidates have declared serious criminal cases. Three constituencies — Beed, Hingoli and Amaravati — feature in the top 10 red alert seats in this phase. On the other hand, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Buldhana too feature in the total 41 red alert constituencies.
As many as 25% of the candidates are crorepatis though none features in the top 10 richest candidates. Shrivenkateswar Maha Swamiji, who is contesting as Hindustan Janata Party (HJP) candidate from Solapur has declared the lowest assets worth ₹9 only.
The top 10 richest include Arun Wankhede, (Bahujan Samaj Party) from Amaravati worth ₹33.80 crore, Ranajagjit Sinh Patil (Nationalist Congress Party) from Osmanabad (₹41.20 crore), and Sudhakar Shrungare (Bharatiya Janata Party) from Latur (SC) (₹28.64 crore).
Manish Wadje, an independent candidate from Nanded is the richest contestant with assets worth ₹65 crore followed by Ashok Chavan (Congress) who is worth ₹50 crore. Sushilkumar Shinde of Congress (₹38 crore) and Gunavant Deopare of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) from Amaravati (₹35 crore) feature among top five richest candidates in the State.