As Punjab Assembly election is just a few days away (January 30), a shocking revelation of the affidavits filed by the contestants exposes that the top three candidates, who are crorepatis, have never filed their Income-Tax return.
Of them, Congress candidate from Muktsar, Karan Kaur, owns movable and immovable assets as high as Rs.128 crore, followed by Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Congress), contesting from Khadoor Sahib and Gurpartap Singh Wadala (Shiromoni Akali Dal-SAD), contesting from Nakodar, have total assets worth Rs 20.12 crore and Rs 13.71 crore respectively.
According to 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 SAD, 20 to PPP, 27 to BSP and one to BJP.
The affidavits revealed another interesting fact wherein 47 candidates had claimed that they did not have Permanent Account Number (issued by IT department) and the highest number (18) of them belonged to the BSP.
The top three candidates with maximum assets but not declared their PAN card details were- Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD contesting from Nakodar with total assets of Rs 13.71 crore, followed by Brahm Mohindra of INC contesting from Patiala Rural and Sikander Singh, an independent candidate contesting from Rampura Phul have total assets of Rs 6.49 crore and Rs 6.32 crore respectively.
Similarly 18 MLAs out of these 77 who are seeking re-election have criminal cases pending against them. Shockingly 5 of them have serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and robbery pending against them.
UTTARAKHAND:
In Uttarakhand, which too goes to poll on Monday (Jan.30), 99 candidates out of the 278 analysed had declared that they had never filed IT returns. Of them 31 belonged to the BSP, 24 from UKD, 20 from BJP and 10 from the Congress. Similarly 42 out of 278 candidates had not declared their PAN card details. Interestingly six of them are crorepatis.
