Silver has added a sparkle to the assets declared by many women leaders in fray for the Lok Sabha elections, including biggies like Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj. A spike in the price of the white metal has pushed up their wealth substantially.
The price of silver has nearly doubled in the past five years and currently stands at nearly ₹43,000 a kg.
An analysis of the affidavits filed by some of the prominent candidates reveals that many of them possess vast silver assets, including jewellery and articles. In most cases, the silver assets are part of their ancestral properties.
Sonia’s silver assets surged in value by nearly ₹21 lakh in five years. She has 88 kg of silver and its value has jumped to ₹39.16 lakh this year from about ₹18.37 lakh in 2009, according to her election affidavit. The quantity remained unchanged from 2009.
Cine star Jaya Prada, who is fighting from Uttar Pradesh on an RLD ticket, has disclosed that 1.5 kg owned by her is now worth over ₹69,000. This marks a significant rise from the earlier recorded value of ₹30,000 in 2009.
Congress leader Chandresh Kumari Katoch, fighting the polls from Rajasthan, too has seen the value of her silver assets more than double to ₹13.5 lakh. Over the past five years, the total quantity of silver owned by her has remained same at 30 kg.
Adding on
Another keen silver owner is BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. Her silver assets have increased to 5.5 kg, now worth over ₹2.36 lakh, whereas she owned about 400 grams in 2009.
Congress leader Girija Vyas owns 2.5 kg of silver, valued at about ₹1.15 lakh. NCP leader and Union Minister Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule owns silver valued at around ₹4.3 lakh.
Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s wife has seen the value of silver utensils — weighing 7 kg — more than double too.