Kolkata, April 9 – As the Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency in South Kolkata prepares for the most high-profile electoral contest in West Bengal later this month, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, pitted against each other, the respective affidavits of the two candidates, filed along with their nominations, show that Adhikari has a significant advantage over Mamata Banerjee in terms of assets and cases filed against him.
According to the affidavit filed along with her nomination on Wednesday, the Chief Minister owns a total of immovable property worth Rs 15.37 lakh and does not own any movable property. She also has no outstanding debts or loans.
On the other hand, according to the affidavit filed by LoP Adhikari, he has cash on hand of Rs 12,000, but owns immovable property worth Rs 61.30 lakh and movable property worth Rs 24.57 lakh.
Over the past five years, LoP Adhikari's total assets have decreased by Rs 34.74 lakh.
Meanwhile, as expected, the Chief Minister has no criminal cases registered against her at any police station in the state. In contrast, Adhikari has seen a significant increase in the number of criminal cases registered against him during the last five years.
In 2021, when Adhikari contested from the Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, there were no criminal cases registered against him at any police station in the state. However, according to the latest affidavit filed along with his nomination this year, there are a total of 29 registered criminal cases against him at different police stations, both in the state capital of Kolkata and in different districts in the state.
Adhikari is contesting simultaneously from Bhabanipur and Nandigram. He was an MLA from Nandigram for Trinamool Congress from 2016 to 2021, and then for the BJP from 2021 to the present.
In 2021, he was elected from Nandigram, defeating Mamata Banerjee by a margin of less than 2,000 votes. Later, she was elected from Bhabanipur in a by-election and continued as Chief Minister for her third consecutive term.
While Nandigram will go to the polls in the first phase on April 23, the polling for Bhabanipur will be in the second phase on April 29. The results will be declared on May 4.