Out of the 796 candidates in the fray for the Delhi Assembly elections on December 4, 265 (33 per cent) are crorepatis, says an analysis of their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission. This is much higher than the 2008 Delhi Assembly elections, when there were 180 (23 per cent) crorepati candidates out of 790 candidates analysed.
The analysis by National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) also shows a big rise in the average asset per candidate at Rs 3.43 crore against Rs 1.77 crore during the 2008 Assembly polls.
Among the major parties, the ruling Congress party candidates had the highest assets per candidate at Rs 14.25 crore, followed by BJP with Rs 8.16 crore, while the average assets of candidates of debutante Aam Aadmi Party is Rs 2.51 crore, ADR said at a press conference here on Tuesday.
The candidate with the highest assets is Manjinder Singh Sirsa of Shiromani Akali Dal from Rajouri Garden constituency, who has declared assets worth Rs 235.51 crore, followed by Sushil Gupta of Congress from Moti Nagar constituency with declared assets worth Rs 164.44 crore.
Interestingly, the highest growth in assets in five years (2008-2013) was seen in Sat Prakash Rana of BJP’s case. The candidate from Bijwasan constituency has declared maximum increase in assets with an increase of Rs 105.51 crore (from Rs 6.38 crore in 2008 to Rs 111.89 crore in 2013).
Out of these 796 candidates, 129 candidates (or 16 per cent) had declared criminal cases against them. In 2008, there were 111 (14 per cent) candidates with declared criminal cases out of 790 candidates analysed.
The ADR analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 796 candidates out of 810 candidates who are contesting in the Delhi State Assembly Elections.
Incidentally, 13 candidates have declared crimes against women, of which nine have declared charges related to assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.