India's coming out

The Politicians seem to have done exceedingly well in the last five years.Their wealth has grown manifold....or the Indian mindset has changed and its cool to be wealthy....You may not be able to say this about the country, but its politicians are certainly shining. Check out the assets declaration by candidates in this election so far and compare them to what was declared by them in the last election, and you will find a quantum jump in their wealth—in certain cases by as much as a mind-numbing 3,000%. The richest candidate so far, going by the assets declared, is Lagadapati Rajagopal, the owner of power generation and infrastructure company Lanco and the Congress candidate from Vijaywada. He has shown assets worth Rs 299 crore. In 2004, he had declared assets worth just Rs 9.6 crore. In other words, during the five-year UPA rule, his assets have gone up 30 times or by 3,000%. And Rajagopal isn’t the only politician whose wealth has grown. It’s a general trend. There are many more candidates today whose assets are larger than the Rs 67 crore declared by D K Adikesavulu, the richest MP in the last election. The Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, for instance, who filed his nomination from Mumbai North-West, declared assets worth Rs 124 crore. Then there’s Karan Singh Tanwar, the BSP’s candidate from South Delhi. He hasn’t filed his nomination so far, but he had declared his assets while filing his nomination for the recently held Delhi assembly elections—Rs 150 crore so far. A lot of political fat cats come from Andhra Pradesh. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy might have assets worth just Rs 1.35 crore, but his son, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, is much richer—he has declared assets worth Rs 77 crore. Mumbai’s fat cats: In a city fabled for its get-rich stories, the Lok Sabha candidates who will be fighting to represent Mumbai’s aam janata are not doing too badly for themselves. Cutting across party lines, they have shown fat bank balances and assets. Here’s what they are worth, according to their declarations filed at the time of nomination.

MOHAMMED ALI (BSP) MUMBAI SOUTH 31cr

MAHESH JETHMALANI (BJP) MUMBAI N-CENTRAL 28cr

HAJI IBRAHIM SHAIKH alias Bhaijaan (BSP) MUMBAI N-CENTRAL 26cr

SANJEEV NAIK (NCP) Thane 6cr

SURESH GAMBHIR (SS) MUMBAI S-CENTRAL 4cr

EKNATH GAIWAD (Cong) MUMBAI S-CENTRAL 24L

The assets of most of our politicians seem to have zoomed over the last few years. Telugu star Chiranjeevi, who has floated Praja Rajam, has declared assets worth Rs 88 crore and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu has declared his wealth at Rs 68 crore. YSR acolyte V Balasoury has shown assets worth Rs 45 crore. Businessman-turned-politician, Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, has declared assets worth Rs 74 crore. And the man who pioneered lowcost airlines under Patel’s watch, Capt Gopinath, has shown assets worth just a shade less—Rs 73.46 crore. Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, has declared assets worth Rs 53 crore, just Rs 2 crore less than that of filmmaker Prakash Jha, who has shown assets worth Rs 55 crore. If Congress nominee from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal’s assets have grown dramatically in the last five years, so have those of lottery king Moni Kumar Subba. In the last election, he had shown assets worth Rs 18 crore. This time he has declared that he owns assets worth Rs 60 crore—a three-fold or a 300% jump. Interestingly, Subba’s LIC policies are worth Rs 100 crore, for which he has paid a premium of Rs 1.17 crore. Compared to these worthies, the wealth of our former maharajas seems small. Gwalior prince Jyotiraditya Scindia’s declared assets, for instance, are less than Rs 14 crore.