Acting on a complaint filed by the Congress, the Election Commission of India on Tuesday asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to verify any mismatch between actual wealth and asset declaration in affidavits submitted by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister who is contesting from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala.

Since the Income Tax department under the CBDT has also the tax records of an individual, the ECI has asked the Board to look into irregularities in the declaration through his affidavit at the time of filing nomination under section 125 A of the Representation of People’s Act 1951. Rajeev Chandrasekhar is pitted against CPM-led LDF candidate Pannyan Raveendran and sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from the constituency.

In the complaint originally filed by Ranjit Thomas, which has been tagged by Congress’s Kerala unit on its X account, the allegation is that Chandrasekhar has filed a “grossly false affidavit” in his nomination for Thiruvananthapuram constituency on April 4. It alleged that Chandrasekhar has “omitted significant assets in his asset declaration, including properties such as his house, luxury cars and private jets which he owns but has not disclosed in his affidavit”.

The values of his companies, listed in the affidavit, “has been underestimated indicating a deliberate attempt to misrepresent his financial status,”, the complaint alleged.

It alleged that the book value of the four holding companies shown in the affidavit is Rs 6.38 crore whereas it is Rs 1,610.53 crore according to the companies filling made with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. “It is evident that Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s delcaration of assets, valued at around Rs 36.12 crore, is grossly inacurate and fails to reflect his true financial standing. His real assets are in the tune of thousands of crores of rupees,” the complaint alleged.

The complainant stated that he had multiple petitions in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court and ECI with regard to the false affidavit filed by the BJP leader in the 2018 Rajya Sabha elections. However, the petition was stuck with EC despite multiple follow-ups, the complaint uploaded by Congress’s Kerala unit on its twitter handle revealed.

The Union Minister has not reacted on the complaint so far. BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat from Kerala, though the party had opened its account in the Assemby polls in 2016, clinching Nemam seat in Thiruvananthapuram district.

Former Congress Union minister Shashi Tharoor, who filed his nomination on Wednesday, has been representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Lok Sabha since 2009.

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