With the Punjab Assembly elections just a few days away (January 30), affidavits filed by contestants show that the top three candidates, who are crorepatis, have never filed Income-Tax returns.
Congress candidate from Muktsar, Karan Kaur, owns movable and immovable assets worth Rs.128 crore, Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Congress), contesting from Khadoor Sahib, and Gurpartap Singh Wadala (Shiromani Akali Dal-SAD), Nakodar candidate, have total assets worth Rs 20.12 crore and Rs 13.71 crore respectively.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO, which analysed the poll affidavits of the contestants in Punjab, 92 of them had declared that they had never filed IT returns. Of them, 15 belonged to the Congress, 11 to the SAD, 20 to the People's Party of Punjab, 27 to the BSP and one to the BJP.
The affidavits revealed another interesting fact — 47 candidates had claimed that they did not have a Permanent Account Number (issued by the I-T department) and the highest number (18) of them belonged to the BSP.
Three candidates with maximum assets but who have not declared their PAN card details were — Gurpartap Singh Wadala of the SAD contesting from Nakodar with total assets of Rs. 13.71 crore, Brahm Mohindra of the Congress contesting from Patiala Rural (Rs. 6.49 crore), and Sikander Singh, an independent, contesting from Rampura Phul (Rs. 6.32 crore).
Eighteen MLAs who are seeking re-election have criminal cases pending against them. Shockingly, five of them have serious criminal cases such as murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and robbery pending against them.
In Uttarakhand, which too goes to the polls on Monday, 99 candidates out of the 278 analysed had declared that they had never filed I-T returns. Of them, 31 belonged to the BSP, 24 from the UKD, 20 from the BJP and 10 from the Congress. Similarly, 42 out of the 278 candidates had not declared their PAN card details. Interestingly, six of them are crorepatis.
