Eighty per cent of the re-contesting legislators of both ruling and the opposition parties in Punjab Vidhan Sabha prospered during the past five years.
A look at the assets of total 94 sitting MlAs, contesting their seats in the February 4 polls, revealed that some of the Congress MlAs thrived more than their rivals in the ruling party. In fact the top three MlAs in terms of assets belong to the Congress.
Under attack by the opposition for amassing huge wealth while ignoring state’s interests, the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his deputy son Sukhbir Badal and Sukhbir’s brother-in-law Bikram Majithia did find a place among the top 10 but at number 9, 6 and four positions, respectively.
Besides the trio, all MlAs in Top-10 belong to the Congress — including Rana Gurjit Singh, Sunder Sham Arora, Sunil Kumar Jakhar, Surinder Kumar Dawar, Kewal Singh Dhillon, Om Parkash Soni, and Balbir Singh Sidhu.
Congress MlA from Kapurthala Rana Gurjit Singh has turned out to be the richest candidate in fray for 2017 elections with assets worth Rs 169.90 scrores witnessing Rs 101.41 crore jump as compared to his assets in 2012, that was Rs 68.48 crores. On the second spot is Congress nominee from Hoshiarpur Sundar Sham Arora whose assets jumped by Rs 22.83 crore (105 per cent) in 2012 to Rs 44.60 crore during 2017 polls.
The former Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader and party’s candidate from Abohar Sunil Jakhar has seen a rise of Rs 17.21 crore (252 per cent) in assets size. Jakhar has declared his assets size of Rs 24.05 crore in his affidavit filed for contesting 2017 polls, as compared to Rs 6.84 crore in 2012.
In terms of percentage, the highest increase in assets — whopping 2783 percent — was witnessed by BJP MlA from Bhoa Seema Kumari who would be contesting her second election this time. From just Rs 2.81 lakh in 2012, her assets increased to Rs 81.01 lakhs — an increase of Rs 78.20 lakhs.
Amid 19 MlAs whose monies witnessed a dip in a gap of five years, BJP’s Dasuya MlA Sukhjit Kaur Sahi finished at the bottom. Her assets drop by 92 percent, that is by Rs 7.27 crore, from Rs 7.88 crore to Rs 61 lakhs. She was elected Dasuya MlA in July 2012 by-elections after her husband, he sitting MlA, breathed his last.
The figures compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms, on the basis of information provided by the candidates in their nomination papers, revealed that the average percentage increase in the assets of 94 re-contesting MlAs was 28 per cent.
The assets comparison of these MlAs show that the average assets in 2017 is Rs 13.79 crore, as increase of Rs 2.98 crore as compared to Rs 10.81 crore in 2012.
As per the report, the average increase in assets of candidates of SAD, Congress and BJP was Rs 1.67 crore (17.26 per cent), Rs 4.96 crore (35.64 per cent) and Rs 1.20 lakh (0.44 per cent) respectively.