Gujarat Polls: It's a contest of 300 crorepatis in 2 phases

Ahmedabad, Dec 8: Gujarat is all decked up for State Assembly Elections 2012. But the elections in the state seem to be a contest of the crorepatis (billionaires). According to the National Election Watch, the first phase of Gujarat election will have 147 crorepatis in fray and the second will see another 150 crorepati contestants.

Polls in Gujarat will take place in two phases: First phase on Dec 13, 2012 and second phase on Dec 17, 2012. The counting will take place on Dec 20, 2012. Gujarat has 182 assembly constituencies.

Thirty-two per cent of the candidates contesting the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012 are "crorepatis", as per the analysis done by National Election Watch (NEW).

301 candidates, out of the 9400, whose affidavits were analysed, are crorepatis, it said.

Gujarat Election Watch, the state chapter of NEW, analysed affidavits of 940 candidates out of 1,666 contesting the state polls (in both phases) and released an analysis report on Friday, Dec 7.

The analysis report also said that the percentage of the crorepati candidates contesting the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012 has gone up to 32 per cent as compared to 21 per cent in the 2007 state polls.

Among the major parties, the average asset per candidate for Congress was Rs 7.17 crore, BJP (Rs 5.47 crore), NCP (Rs 4.36 crore), Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) (Rs 1.13 crore), BSP (Rs 46.24 lakh), SP (Rs 22.31 lakh) and for JD-U (Rs 17.87 lakh), reveals the NEW analysis.

The top three candidates, who declared highest assets are from Congress: Balvantsinh Rajput from Sidhpur with Rs 268 crore, followed by Indranil Rajguru from Rajkot East with Rs 122 crore and Javahar Chavada from Manavadar with Rs 82 crore.

While the top three candidates with highest liabilities were Balavantsinh Rajput with Rs 52.33 crore, followed by Indranil Rajguru at Rs 27.14 crore and Jitendra Somani, a BJP candidate from Wankaner with Rs 17.69 crore.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)