Kolkata, May 30 (PTI) Of the 507 candidates from West Bengal contesting in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, 112 have declared criminal cases against them, according to a study of affidavits submitted to the Election Commission (EC).

The study, conducted by the West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), revealed that among these 112 candidates - 97 men and 15 women - 92 have serious criminal cases against them.

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"BJP's Barrackpore candidate Arjun Singh tops the list of candidates with the maximum number of criminal cases," the study said.

Singh has 93 cases, followed by senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, contesting from Burdwan-Durgapur, with 27 cases.

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Other candidates with numerous cases include Santanu Thakur (Bangaon) with 23 cases, Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly) with 22, and BJP's West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar, contesting from Balurghat seat, with 16.

The analysis also found that 128, out of the 507 candidates, have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The ruling TMC has the highest number of crorepati candidates with 35, followed by the BJP with 29, CPI(M) with 11, Congress with 10, and SUCI(C) with 3.

Additionally, there are 17 Independent candidates and 23 other contestants who are also crorepatis.

Altogether 211 candidates have declared their education level to be between 5th and 12th standard, while 271 contestants are graduates or have higher degrees.

Eleven candidates are diploma holders, 12 have declared themselves to be just literate, and two are illiterate, the study said.

Of its 42, the TMC has 11 candidates with serious criminal cases. For the CPIM and the Congress, the numbers are nine and three respectively, it stated.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)