With Rs 3L assets, Chhatrapur MLA poorest among legislators

--29 out of 147 MLAs not declared ITR

BHUBANESWAR: Priyanshu Pradhan, who was elected as Chhatrapur MLA on BJD ticket, is poor among the 147 legislators elected in the Assembly elections, said the analysis of the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) here on Monday. 

According to the affidavit submitted by Pradhan before the Returning Officer during filing of his nomination paper he has total assets of Rs 2, 76,380 (Movable Rs 1, 66,380, Immovable Rs 1, 10,000). 

Besides Pradhan, there are eight other newly elected MLAs (six BJD, two BJP) have declared assets of less than Rs 10 lakhs. They are BJD MLA from Mohana Basanti Mallick, Rengali MLA Ramesh Patua (BJD), Kuchinda MLA Rabi Narayan Naik (BJP), Rairangpur MLA Saiba Sushil Kumar Hansdah (BJD), Badasahi MLA Ganeswar Patra (BJD), Padampur MLA Pradip Purohit (BJP), Telkoi MLA Bedabyasa Nayak (BJD) and Bhubaneswar Central (Madhya) MLA Bijaya Kumar Mohanty (BJD). 

On the other hand, out of the 147 winners analysed, 76 (52 per cent) winners were crorepatis comparatively higher than 2009 Assembly elections which had witnessed 33 (22 per cent) MLAs. Out of the total crorepatis, BJD has 62, Congress nine and BJP four. BJP’s Dilip Kumar Ray from Rourkela topped the list of crorepati MLA with over 106 crore, while Independent MLA from Champua Sanatan Mahakud with Rs 69 crore and BJP’s Deogarh MLA Nitesh Gangadeb with Rs 17 crore became second and third in the list of rich MLAs respectively.  

The OEW stated that average assets of the MLAs have been increased from Rs 1.71 crore in 2009 Assembly polls to Rs 3.22 crore in 2014.

As many as 29 (20 per cent) out of 147 winners analysed have not declared annual income in their income tax return (ITR). Three crorepati MLAs have not declared their ITR. Similarly, eight winners have not declared their PAN details, the OEW analysis said.