Candidate assets up by 400 pc this election

New Delhi: If one were to simply go by the affidavits of personal wealth submitted for the 1st round of elections, you would left counting the number of zeros. In some cases, it's taken only one term in office for the wealth of some legislators to go up by a whopping 300 to 3000 per cent.

Lottery baron MK Subba, is the Congress MP from Tezpur. He says he owns 11 flats around Delhi, has over Rs 56 crore in cash and in banks and a whopping Rs 100 crore rupee LIC policy.

Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi has assets worth over Rs 125 crore. He owns a hotel chain and a construction businesses, and has been accused of being close to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

NCP candidate from Baramati, Supriya Sule, has assets worth Rs 52 crore. She is in fact richer than her father, NCP leader Sharad Pawar. But strangely, neither of them owns a car.

Meanwhile, BSP candidate from Pune, DS Kulkarni, has Rs 29 crores and 29 cars.

Andhra Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan Reddy has declared assets worth Rs 77 crore, but some allege there may be more, pointing to his links with Satyam founder and fraudster Ramalinga Raju.

In comparison, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are poor. Sonia has assets worth Rs 1.3 crore, but owns no cars or houses in India. Rahul Gandhi's assets are worth Rs 2.25 crore. He owns two farmhouses around Delhi but again, no car.

The declared wealth of candidates to the Lok Sabha has grown by 400 per cent since 2002. Welcome to the Rich Man's Club.

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