‘Acche Din’ only for Crorepati Candidates – Poll Affidavits show a cumulative asset growth of Rs. 142.5 crore

Cabinet ministers’ total assets jump 80% in 5 years

crorepati candidates

While the general public is still looking for ‘acche din’, they have already arrived for the state’s cabinet ministers. An analysis of their poll affidavits show that their cumulative assets have seen an average increase of Rs. 7.9 crore, and a total of Rs. 142.5 crore in the last five years.

The Times of India (TOI) analysed the affidavits of 18 cabinet ministers who contested again. Their total assets showed an 80% increase, from Rs. 179.8 crore last time to Rs. 322.5 crore currently.

The highest jump of Rs. 27.1 crore in assets came from Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Babanrao Lonikar, who was contesting from Partur. His assets rose from Rs. 2.3 crore in 2014 to Rs. 29.4 crore in 2019.

Not far behind him, the second highest increase in assets of Rs. 21.7 crore, was shown by Rural Development, Women and Children Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde whose assets rose from Rs. 13.7 crore in 2014 to Rs. 35.4 crore in 2019.Pankaja has declared her source of income to be farming and honorarium.

The other top gainers are Subhash Deshmukh of the BJP with an increase of Rs. 16.6 crore, Jaydatta Kshirsagar of the Shiv Sena with an increase of 13 crore, and Ashish Shelar of the BJP with an increase of Rs. 9.6 crore.

Social Justice Minister, Suresh Khade has been the lowest gainer with an increase of Rs. 6 lakh – His wealth grew to Rs. 4.94 crore in 2019 from Rs. 4.88 crore in 2014.

There has also been an increase in the wealth of the Shiv Sena leaders who are in the cabinet of Fanavis. The wealth of Eknath Shinde, Minister of Public Works (Enterprises) has also increased. Shinde, who has a wealth of Rs. 7.50 crore in the year 2014, now has assets worth Rs.11.60 crore.

(Source – meramumbai.com)

It is not just Maharashtra where the income of ministers has seen a manifold increase. Haryana cabinet minister Captain Abhimanyu’s, a BJP MLA from Narnaund constituency, wealth jumped by about 120 percent or Rs. 93 crore in the last five years, revealed an analysis of self-sworn election affidavits by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). This is the highest increase in total assets of any re-contesting MLA in absolute monetary terms.

In Haryana, the average assets of re-contesting MLAs have increased from Rs. 11.32 crore in 2014 to Rs. 14.94 crore in 2019, a surge of almost 32 percent.

The top five gainers among other re-contesting MLAs in Haryana are Naina Sahni of the JJP – an increase of Rs. 31.5 crore (52%), Kuldeep Bishnoi of Congress with Rs. 25.4 crore (32%), Abhay Singh Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) with an increase of 23 crore (53%), and Randeep Singh Surjewara of the Congress with Rs. 7.94 crore (173%).

The Richie Richs of Politics
A report by BOOM shows that a third of the candidates in the elections are crorepatis.

In Maharashtra, a total of 155 (96 per cent) out of 162 candidates, who have been analysed from the BJP, and 116 (94 per cent) out of 124 candidates from the Shiv Sena are crorepati.

The richest candidate, Parag Shah, belongs to the BJP and has declared assets worth Rs. 500 crore, followed by Mangal Prabhat Lodha with Rs. 441 crore. Six out of the ten richest candidates belong to the BJP. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) leads with highest average assets per candidate at Rs. 31 crore, BJP comes in second with Rs. 23 crore with average assets per candidate.

The ADR had earlier revealed that the total amount of corporate donations received by the BJP in FY 2016-17 and 2017-18 stood the highest at Rs. 915.596 crore, which formed 94% of the total amount of donations received in that period.

However, the number of crorepati candidates has gone down in this assembly election says the report by ADR. Out of the 3,112 candidates from the 2019 assembly polls analysed, 1,007 are crorepatis. In 2014, out of 2,336 candidates, the number of crorepati candidates was 1,095.