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The number of rich candidates in Haryana, with declared assets of over ₹10 crore, has shot up to 122 this year against 41 in the 2009 Assembly polls.
Of these, nine candidates have declared assets of over ₹100 crore, says an analysis of the affidavits submitted by 1,343 candidates by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Haryana Election Watch.
The role of power-politics in personal wealth creation was also reflected by the growth in the average assets of the 67 MLAs who are re-contesting this year — it has more than doubled from ₹7.30 crore in 2009 to ₹18.71 crore in 2014.
A total of 38 re-contesting Congress MLAs declared a 185 per cent increase in average assets. For the 19 INLD and four BJP MLAs, the numbers stand at 207 per cent and 211 per cent, respectively.
Among the candidates in the over ₹100-crore club is Savitri Jindal (industrialist Naveen Jindal’s mother) of the Congress, whose assets rose from ₹43.68 crore in 2009 to ₹113.27 crore in 2014.
The assets of Independent candidate Sukhbir Kataria increased to ₹104.26 crore (₹38.34 crore), followed by Venod Sharma, whose assets stood at ₹153.14 crore (₹87.40 crore). Sharma is the father of Manu Sharma, who is serving a jail term in the Jessica Lal murder case.
However, there has been a reduction in the number of candidates with declared criminal cases. Out of the 1,343 candidates, 94 declared criminal cases against 109 out of 1,186 in 2009.
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