India's coming out
The
Politicians seem to have done exceedingly well in the last five
years.Their wealth has grown manifold....or the Indian mindset has
changed and its cool to be wealthy....You may not be able to say this
about the country, but its politicians are certainly shining. Check out
the assets declaration by candidates in this election so far and
compare them to what was declared by them in the last election, and you
will find a quantum jump in their wealth—in certain cases by as much as
a mind-numbing 3,000%. The richest candidate so far, going by the
assets declared, is Lagadapati Rajagopal, the owner of power generation
and infrastructure company Lanco and the Congress candidate from
Vijaywada. He has shown assets worth Rs 299 crore. In 2004, he had
declared assets worth just Rs 9.6 crore. In other words, during the
five-year UPA rule, his assets have gone up 30 times or by 3,000%. And
Rajagopal isn’t the only politician whose wealth has grown. It’s a
general trend. There are many more candidates today whose assets are
larger than the Rs 67 crore declared by D K Adikesavulu, the richest MP
in the last election. The Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, for instance, who
filed his nomination from Mumbai North-West, declared assets worth Rs
124 crore. Then there’s Karan Singh Tanwar, the BSP’s candidate from
South Delhi. He hasn’t filed his nomination so far, but he had declared
his assets while filing his nomination for the recently held Delhi
assembly elections—Rs 150 crore so far. A lot of political fat cats
come from Andhra Pradesh. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy might
have assets worth just Rs 1.35 crore, but his son, Y S Jaganmohan
Reddy, is much richer—he has declared assets worth Rs 77 crore.
Mumbai’s fat cats: In a city fabled for its get-rich stories, the Lok
Sabha candidates who will be fighting to represent Mumbai’s aam janata
are not doing too badly for themselves. Cutting across party lines,
they have shown fat bank balances and assets. Here’s what they are
worth, according to their declarations filed at the time of nomination.
MOHAMMED ALI (BSP) MUMBAI SOUTH 31cr
MAHESH JETHMALANI (BJP) MUMBAI N-CENTRAL 28cr
HAJI IBRAHIM SHAIKH alias Bhaijaan (BSP) MUMBAI N-CENTRAL 26cr
SANJEEV NAIK (NCP) Thane 6cr
SURESH GAMBHIR (SS) MUMBAI S-CENTRAL 4cr
EKNATH GAIWAD (Cong) MUMBAI S-CENTRAL 24L
The
assets of most of our politicians seem to have zoomed over the last few
years. Telugu star Chiranjeevi, who has floated Praja Rajam, has
declared assets worth Rs 88 crore and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu
has declared his wealth at Rs 68 crore. YSR acolyte V Balasoury has
shown assets worth Rs 45 crore. Businessman-turned-politician, Union
civil aviation minister Praful Patel, has declared assets worth Rs 74
crore. And the man who pioneered lowcost airlines under Patel’s watch,
Capt Gopinath, has shown assets worth just a shade less—Rs 73.46 crore.
Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, has declared assets worth Rs 53
crore, just Rs 2 crore less than that of filmmaker Prakash Jha, who has
shown assets worth Rs 55 crore. If Congress nominee from Vijayawada
Lagadapati Rajagopal’s assets have grown dramatically in the last five
years, so have those of lottery king Moni Kumar Subba. In the last
election, he had shown assets worth Rs 18 crore. This time he has
declared that he owns assets worth Rs 60 crore—a three-fold or a 300%
jump. Interestingly, Subba’s LIC policies are worth Rs 100 crore, for
which he has paid a premium of Rs 1.17 crore. Compared to these
worthies, the wealth of our former maharajas seems small. Gwalior
prince Jyotiraditya Scindia’s declared assets, for instance, are less
than Rs 14 crore.
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