Two crorepatis in poll battle in poverty-hit Kandhamal

Poverty-ridden Kandhamal district in Odisha has two crorepatis as rival candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, with one of the wealthy contestants owning luxury watches worth lakhs.
Six candidates from Congress, BJD, BJP, AAP and BSP are in the fray from the tribal-dominated Kandhamal parliamentary constituency which is spread over four districts - Kandhamal, Ganjam, Boudh and Nayagarh.
Among the contestants, Hemendra Chandra Singh of BJD is the richest. Singh and his spouse Prayusha Rajeshwari Singh have assets worth over Rs 48.72 crore.
According to the affidavit filed by Hemendra Singh during nomination, he has total movable properties worth over Rs 11.17 crore. While his spouse has over Rs 2.48 crore. Besides bank deposits and investments, he has 11 vehicles.

The couple also have valuable watches, the market value of which at present is around Rs 23.85 lakh. While Hemendra has a Rolex watch (market value Rs 4 lakh), Omega (1.20 lakh), Rolex (Rs 7 lakh), his spouse has an Omega Constellation (Rs 1 lakh), Rolex diamond (Rs 7 lakh) and Omega worth Rs 3.75 lakh. His dependents have two Tagheur watches (valued at Rs 3 lakh).
Singh has immovable properties worth around Rs 35.07 crore. In 2012-13, he showed his total income as Rs 10.24 crore, while the income of his spouse was Rs 1.31 lakh, the affidavit said.

Congress candidate Harihar Karan, pitted against Singh, has total assets worth around Rs 9.62 crore. While Karan, a former minister has total movable properties around Rs 71.44 lakh, his spouse has Rs 66.20 lakh.
According to the affidavit, Karan has Rs 6.07 crore worth immovable properties, while his spouse's immovable properties market value is Rs 2.18 crore.
In sharp contrast to the two, the other candidates stand far behind in terms of wealth. BJP's Sukanta Panigrahi is the poorest of the candidates with only Rs 5.80 lakh. Narendra Mohanty of AAP has property worth Rs 9.58 lakh, while the other two candidates, Rama Nayak (BSP) and Lambodar Kanhar (Independent) have properties worth Rs 11.37 lakh and Rs 13 lakh respectively.