The Congress alleged on Tuesday that there are “deliberate discrepancies” in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election affidavits. The party said Modi did not mention about a particular plot of land in Gandhinagar which he allegedly owns in the affidavits. The party asked the Election Commission to take action under the Representation of People Act.
Party’s spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters that in an election affidavit in 2007, Modi declared that he was the sole owner of Plot 411 in Sector 1 in Gandhinagar.
“Modi listed the area of the plot as 326.22 sq m, and the cost of its purchase as ₹1.3 lakh. Based on the market rates prevailing in Gandhinagar, this plot is presently worth about ₹1.18 crore. Modi was the then CM of Gujarat and had also declared in his affidavit that he had spent ₹30,363 to construct on the piece of same land,” Khera said.
He added that in 2012, Modi omitted the mention of plot 411 from his affidavit. “Instead, he listed the plot 401/A, and declared himself a quarter owner. He listed the area of his share of the plot as 326.11 sq m, same area as of plot 411, listed in his 2007 election affidavit,” Khera said.
In 2014 too, plot 411 did not figure in the affidavit, he said.
“In his declaration on the PMO Website, PM Modi declared that he owns one-fourth of ‘401/A.’ He listed the area of the plot as 14,125.80 sq ft — 1,312.3 sq m, which is approximately four times the size of the standard plots in Sector 1. PM Modi listed his share as 3531.45 sq ft — equaling 328.08 square metres,” he added.
Khera argued that the area of the plot remains the same from 2007 to 2015. “But the ownership moves from full owner of ‘Plot 411, Sector 1 Gandhinagar’ to one quarter of the ownership of ‘Plot No 401/A’ in Sector 1 Gandhinagar. Shockingly, there is no such plot listed as ‘Plot No 401/A’in the Gujarat revenue department’s land records for Gandhinagar, but the same plot is listed in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 2014 affidavit.. Jaitley listed himself as ‘1/4th’ owner of the same plot as PM Modi,” Khera said.
He further added: “Jaitley states in the affidavit that this land was allotted to him by an office under the district’s collector that is the custodian of land records.”
Khera claimed that Jaitley is the present and sole owner of Plot 401. The Congress also cited a Supreme Court proceeding and said the Gujarat government had not made any fresh land allotments to MPs, MLAs or public servants since 2000. “Then how did Modi acquire this piece of land in Gandhinagar?” Khera asked.