Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s candidate from Rajouri Garden, is the richest candidate in Delhi, with declared assets of ₹239 crore that grew 2 per cent after the 2013 Assembly elections.

Sirsa, who refers to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal as ‘My Legend’ on his website, saw his wealth grow multi-fold after he won as MLA from Jangpura in 2008, when he had declared assets of ₹43.36 crore.

The AAP’s Pramila Tokas from RK Puram is the second richest candidate with total assets of ₹87 crore, followed by the BJP’s Sat Prakash Rana from Bijwasan with over ₹78 crore.

Incidentally, Rana has shown a 30 per cent fall in assets since 2013, when he declared ₹111 crore.

Among the other ‘crorepati’ MLAs in Delhi who are contesting again are Devender Yadav of Congress (₹29 crore), BJP’s Kulvant Rana (₹15 crore) and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (₹8 crore), and Congress leader Haroun Yusuf (₹3 crore). All these MLAs’ assets have grown since 2013.

Party-wise, the average assets of eight Congress MLAs grew 10.21 per cent till 2015, while the 31 MLAs of the BJP saw a decline in average assets at -7 per cent. The average assets of the 28 MLAs from the AAP grew 4.4 per cent, says an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 62 re-contesting MLAs by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Delhi Election Watch.

Overall, 230 out of 673 candidates in the fray are crorepatis. Party-wise crorepatis: Congress 59/70 (84 per cent), BJP 50/69 (72 per cent), AAP 44/70 (63 per cent).

Criminal cases

Of the 69 BJP candidates in the fray, 27 have declared criminal cases against them, followed by 23 out of 70 AAP candidates and 21 out of 70 Congress candidates.

The BJP, which promised transparency in its poll campaigns, is yet to submit its 2013 expenditure statements to the Election Commission (EC), said ADR.

The AAP, which was an unrecognised party in 2013 and was not required to submit an account of its poll expenditure, has also not submitted its account despite seeking 15 days time from the EC in February 2014.

Political parties are required to submit a statement of expenses, including the funds received, expenses on publicity, travel, candidates among others to the EC within 75 days of completion of the election process.