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23 of the DMK's 24 candidates are crorepatis!
97 seats were going to the polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election today, April 18, but on Tuesday evening the election in Vellore in Tamil Nadu was cancelled following recovery of a huge amount of cash allegedly from a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate's office.
35 assembly constituencies in Odisha will also go to the polls today.
There will be 1,644 candidates in the fray in the second phase.
According to data collected by the Association for Democratic Reforms, 251 (17%) of the candidates have declared criminal cases against them.
167 (11%) of the 1,590 candidates analysed by ADR have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 51 candidates of which 16 (31%) have criminal cases registered against them.
Of the 53 candidates fielded by the Congress for the second phase, 23 (43%) have criminal cases registered.
Of the 80 candidates fielded by the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, 16 (20%) have criminal cases registered against them.
3 (14%) of 22 candidates from the AIADMK, 11 (46%) of 24 DMK candidates and 4 (36%) of 11 Shiv Sena candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
When it comes to fielding candidates with serious criminal cases, of the BJP's 51 candidates 10 (20%) have serious criminal cases registered against them.
Of the Congress's 53 candidates, 17 (32%) have serious criminal cases registered against them.
10 (13%) of the BSP's 80 candidates, 3 (14%) of the AIADMK's 22 candidates, 7 (29%) of the DMK's 24 candidates and 1 (9%) of the Shiv Sena's 11 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
When it comes to wealth, like the candidates of phase one, phase two will have 423 (27%) crorepati candidates.
46 (87%) of the Congress's 53 candidates, 45 (88%) of the BJP's 51 candidates, 23 (96%) of the DMK's 24 nominees, 22 (100%) of the AIADMK's 22 candidates and 21 (26%) of the BSP's 80 candidates are crorepatis.
The three wealthiest candidates in the second phase belong to the Congress.
H Vasanthakumar (Kanyakumari/Tamil Nadu) has assets of Rs 417 crore/Rs 4.75 billion. Uday Singh (Purnea/Bihar) has assets of Rs 341 crores/Rs 3.41 billion. D K Suresh (Bangalore Rural/Karnataka) has assets worth Rs 338 crore/Rs 3.38 billion.
16 candidates fighting in the second phase have declared 0 assets.
Shrivenkateswar Maha Swamiji fighting on the Hindustan Janta Party ticket from Solapur, Maharashtra, has movable assets worth Rs 9 only.
697 (44%) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 5 and Class 12
756 (48%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.
35 candidates have declared to be just literate and 26 candidates are illiterate.
525 (33%) candidates in the second phase have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years.
805 (51%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years.
Similarly, 246 (15%) candidates have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.
7 candidates have declared their age to be above 80 years.
6 candidates have not given their age.
1 candidate has declared his age to be 24 years.
120 (8%) of the 1,644 candidates are female in the second phase.
Text: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com. Data: Association for Democratic Reforms