Phase 2 of the Jharkhand Assembly elections 2024, slated to take place on November 20, will see dozens of ‘crorepatis’ fighting to get elected to be part of the next government, which will be formed after counting of votes and results of the polls are declared on November 23, coinciding with the same for the Maharashtra election 2024.
According to an Alternative Dispute Redressal (ADR) report, 127 or 24 per cent of the 522 candidates contesting the Phase 2 of Jharkhand Assembly elections have declared assets valued more than ₹1 crore, with the richest among them being Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Pakur constituency nominee Aquil Akhtar.
The ADR report reveals that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded the most number of crorepati candidates — 32 — in the Phase 2, followed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and other parties. However, while 72 per cent of BJP’s Phase 2 candidates are crorepatis, the same number is 90 per cent for JMM and 83 per cent for Congress.
Party-wise crorepati candidates:
BJP: 23 (72 per cent) out of 32 candidates
JMM: 18 (90 per cent) out of 20 candidates
Congress: 10 (83 per cent) out of 12 candidates
All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) 5 (83 per cent) out of six candidates
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP): 4 (17 per cent) out of 24 candidates
RJD: 2 (100 per cent) out of 2 candidates
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024 Phase II is ₹2.53 Crore, as per the ADR report.
Also read: Jharkhand polls Phase 2: Richest candidate has assets worth over ₹4,00,00,00,000
Looking at the party-wise average assets, the same for two RJD candidates is Rs. 24.18 crore, six AJSU candidates is ₹9.20 crore, 20 JMM candidates have average assets of ₹7.48 crore, 32 BJP candidates of ₹5.05 crore, 12 Congress candidates of ₹3.10 crore and 24 BSP candidates have average assets worth ₹67 lakh.
Interestingly, the three candidates with the highest assets belong to none of the parties listed above. While SP’s Aquil Akhtar, contesting from Pakur, has declared assets worth over ₹400 crore, Niranjan Rai, fighting the polls from Dhanwar seat as an independent candidate, has declared assets worth over ₹137 crore. The third in the list is Aazad Samaj Party’s (Kanshi Ram) Dhanwar candidate Mohammad Danish, who has declared assets worth over ₹32 crore.
Jharkhand Assembly polls are taking place in two phases, with the first one having taken place on November 13 and the second scheduled to take place on November 20.
The counting of votes for the 81-seat Jharkhand Assembly elections will take place on November 23. The term of the Jharkhand Assembly ends on January 5 next year.