Counting of votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, scheduled for May 23, will decide the electoral fate of 338 Members of Parliament (MPs) who are seeking re-election, among others.
A large number of these MPs who were elected in 2014 and are seeking re-election this time, have seen their assets grow substantially in the last five years.
Of these 338 legislators, an assessment of 335 re-contesting MPs’ assets, by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), has shown an average growth of 41 percent in the last five years. The ADR report did not analyse three re-contesting MPs as their affidavits from 2014 were either badly scanned or their complete affidavit was not uploaded to the Election Commission (EC)’s website.
According to the report, average assets of these 335 re-contesting MPs across party lines and Independents, in 2014 was Rs 16.7 crore. This amount swelled by Rs 6.8 crore to Rs 23.6 crore in 2019. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
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The top three re-contesting MPs, who showed the highest increase in assets, belong to the Congress. Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, who was with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in 2014, showed an increase of more than Rs 366 crore (69 percent), in his assets during this period.
Reddy is followed by All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh (West) Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose income increased from Rs 33 crore to Rs 374 crore. That is an increase of 1,032 percent during the five-year period.
Karnataka MP DK Suresh registered a 295 percent growth in assets, from Rs 85 crore to Rs 338 crore (295 percent increase).
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Other prominent faces were Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who declared assets worth Rs 217 crore (102 percent increase). Actor-politicians Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha also showed increase in their assets by 41 percent and 47 percent, respectively, during the period.
The average asset growth for BJP’s 170 re-contesting MPs was 34.97 percent, while that for Congress’ 38 MPs was 102 percent.
The average assets of re-contesting MPs from other political parties such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) witnessed a reduction. While TDP’s 10 analysed MPs showed a decrease of 45 percent, AAP’s two MPs showed a decline of 35 percent in their assets.
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