Of the 1,352 candidates contesting 95 seats across 12 states in phase three of the Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party's South Goa candidate Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo, is the richest with assets worth Rs 1,361 crore (Rs 13.61 billion), followed by the BJP's Guna candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has declared assets worth Rs 424 crore (Rs 4.24 billion) and the Congress' Kolhapur candidate Chhatrapati Shahu Shahaji, who has declared assets worth Rs 342 crore (Rs 3.42 billion).
According to an Association for Democratic Reforms analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of all 1,352 candidates who are contesting in phase three, 244 (18 per cent) candidates have declared that they face criminal cases and 392 (29 per cent) have assets worth Rs 10 million or more, that is they are 'crorepati candidates', with an average of Rs 5.66 crore (Rs 56.6 million) assets.
ADR terms a constituency a 'red alert' where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
It said 43 (45 per cent) out of the 95 constituencies are red alert constituencies in phase three.
There are 123 (9 per cent) female candidates contesting in phase three.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
