Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Congress candidate from Bangalore South for the Lok Sabha polls, has declared assets worth Rs 7,710 crore in his affidavit filed before the Election Commission.
“Till now, among the candidates who have filed their nominations, Nilekani is the richest across the country,” said Trilochan Sastry, state coordinator, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
ADR issued on Tuesday its analysis of criminal, financial and other background details of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Karnataka.
R Prabhakara Reddy, the Janata Dal (S) candidate from Bangalore Rural, is after Nilekani on the list of high asset candidates from Karnataka. He has declared total assets of Rs 224 crore. V Balakrishnan, former director of Infosys and candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party for Bangalore Central constituency, is third on the list, with an asset size of Rs 189 crore.
Of 432 candidates in the fray, 118 (27 per cent) are crorepatis. Of these, the Congress has 27, the Bharatiya Janata Party has 26, the JD (S) has 21 and 12 are from the AAP.
Among major parties, the average assets of the 28 Congress candidates is Rs 293.75 crore, the 25 JD (S) candidates have average assets of Rs 30.40 crore, the 28 BJP candidates’ average assets are Rs 14.65 crore and the 28 AAP candidates have Rs 8.49 crore.
A total of 177 candidates of the 432 have declared their income tax details. Of these, 22 have declared a total income of more than Rs 50 lakh. Nilekani has declared the highest total annual income of Rs 168.41 crore, followed by Manju A of the Congress from Hassan with income of Rs 14.04 crore and R Prabhakara Reddy of the JD (S) with a total income of Rs 3.91 crore.
About 255 candidates of the 432 candidates have not declared their income tax details. These include 10 candidates with declared total assets worth more than Rs 1 crore each.
A total of 215 candidates have declared liabilities, 35 of these saying it's above Rs 1 crore each. Prabhakara Reddy has liabilities worth Rs 221.80 crore, followed by H D Kumaraswamy of the JD (S) from Chikkaballapur with Rs 72.96 crore and Suresh Angadi of the BJP, from Belgaum, at Rs 36.62 crore.
The ADR analysis says 51 candidates have declared assets less than Rs 1 lakh each (excluding candidates with zero assets). The ones with the lowest assets are: K Mahadevappa of the Bharatiya Dr B R Ambedkar Janata Party from Mandya, with only Rs 500, followed by Ambrose D, an independent from Bangalore Central and M S Narayanaswamy from Kolar, who've declared Rs 575 and Rs 1,000, respectively. These candidates have not provided their PAN (permanent tax account number).
Four candidates have declared zero assets in their affidavits. They are Mirza Shafee Baig, independent from Bidar; Ramudu of the Bahujan Samaj Party from Bellary, Basavantappa Honnappa Hullatti of the Sarva Janata Party from Haveri and Manjunatha G, independent from Udupi-Chikmagalur.
In all, 133 candidates have not declared their PAN details, of which four are crorepatis.
The ADR analysis has also revealed that 55 candidates of the 432 analysed have disclosed criminal charges against themselves. About 30 face serious criminal charges such as attempt to murder, crimes against women and criminal intimidation. The Congress has six such candidates, the BJP and JD (S) have nine and eight, respectively. Some of the high profile candidates with criminal cases against them include the BJP's B S Yeddyurappa, former chief minister, contesting from Shimoga; Pramod Muthalik from Bangalore South and Dharwad, Shrimant Balasaheb Patil of the JD (S) from Chikkodi, the BJP's B Sreeramulu from Bellary, N Dharam Singh, former chief minister and Congress candidate from Bidar and Rizwan Arshad of the Congress from Bangalore Central.
