A study by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch has revealed that a large number of candidates in Haryana polls are millionaires. There is also an increase of 20 per cent in the number of candidates since last elections.
WITH A jump of almost twenty per cent in the number of candidates contesting polls in Assembly elections, politics it seems is attracting more and more people in Haryana. And why not, after making millions in the property and industrial boom which has been witnessed in the state, the rich now want a share in political power.
Politics, instead of becoming the last refuge of scoundrel is becoming the turf of millionaires in Haryana. Out of 489 candidates fighting elections, a whopping 251 have declared themselves as crorepatis and it is most likely that the rich and powerful have the maximum chance of making it to the state Assembly.
Mohit, a candidate of Haryana Janhit Congress HJC (BL) has declared assets worth 92.7 crores, closely followed by Vinod Sharma of Congress, who is worth 87.4 crores and they both have got rich company.
Congress leads the pack with 72 crorepatis, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has 56, HJC(BL) 44, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 41 and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has 29 crorepatis respectively.
Another interesting aspect is that there is whopping increase in the assets of about 42 state MLAs, who are re-contesting the elections. The average increase in the assets of the MLAs is around 4.8 crores, which amounts to 388 per cent.
Interestingly two women candidates from Congress, Sharda Rathore in Faridabad and Anita Yadav in Mahedragarh have witnessed maximum increase in their wealth.
As per a study conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch(NEW) amongst the three states going to Assembly polls Haryana has the maximum number of candidates per constituency. The average candidate per seat for Haryana stands at 13.57 as compared to 12.65 for Maharashtra and 2.6 for Arunachal Pradesh.
A large number of candidates with criminal records are fighting the elections making it clear that muscle power will also play a role in the coming polls. At least 67 candidates have declared that criminal cases are pending against them and these include heinous crimes.
There is a three per cent jump in the number of criminal candidates with all the major political parties giving tickets to such candidates.
Cong and (BL) lead the pack with 14 criminal candidates, while INLD and BSP are closely following them with 12 candidates each.
