Three candidates in the upcoming state elections in Haryana — all belonging to the ruling BJP — have declared total income of Rs 1 lakh per day or more, according to an analysis of income tax filings by Haryana Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms. Total income, in this context, includes the income of the wife and any dependent (minor) children.
From an income perspective, the most productive of all the candidates in the fray this year is Rohtak-based Jat leader Satish Nandal, who joined BJP from INLD in June this year.
Including his wife and dependents/children, Nandal has shown income of Rs 6.22 cr per year — or Rs 1.70 lakh per day. Out of this, 4.41 cr — or Rs 1.21 lakh per day — is earned by Nandal himself as director remuneration and incentives from Shivalaya Construction Co.
The remaining — around Rs 50,000 per day — is earned by his wife/dependents. His wife earns her income via fashion designing, according to his tax return.
The second highest earning member is also from the Jat community — Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu, also known as Captain Abhimanyu.
Sindhu is a Harvard-alumnus and a known businessman in Haryana, and holds several positions in the BJP at the national level as well.
His total income, including that of his wife and dependents, is Rs 4.70 cr per year, or about Rs 1.29 lakh per day, according to the Election Watch-ADR analysis.
In case of Captain Abhimanyu, however, most of the money is earned by his wife and dependents. Out of the 1.29 lakh per day income, his wife and dependents contribute almost Rs 83,000 per day.
His wife’s sources of income are shown as salary as a minister at the state level, rental, transportation business, interest and agriculture.
Sindhu’s earnings are for the year 2017-18, as he has not filed the 2018-19 return as part of his documentation.
The third highest-earning candidate is also from BJP – Parmod Kumar Vij. Vij, unlike the first two, does not belong to the Jat community, but is a Khatri (Kshatriya).
He earns a little over Rs 3.64 cr a year — or close to Rs 1 lakh per day. Out of this, 2.48 cr is shown as own income and the remaining as income of his dependents.
Like Sindhu, Parmod Kumar Vij’s numbers are also based on his filings for the year 2017-18. The numbers for 2018-19 were not made available by the candidate.
As for wealth or assets, Sindhu was clearly above the other two with total assets of Rs 170 cr, while Vij reported assets of Rs 48 cr and Nandal Rs 30 cr.
However, the richest candidate in the fray — in terms of total assets — is not Abhimanyu Singh, but the relatively unknown Rohtas Singh who is trying his luck this time with the backing of Jannayak Janta Party in the Sohna Constituency.
With Rs 325 cr of assets, Singh pushed Captain Abhimanyu to the No.2 spot.
Despite not figuring in any of the wealth lists, Indian National Congress turned out to be the party with the highest level of average candidate wealth.
On average, each Congress candidate had a wealth of Rs 13.72 cr, compared to Rs 11.62 cr for the BJP and Rs 11.29 cr for the JJP.
On the other end, the average BSP candidate was worth ‘only’ Rs 2.48 cr, while the average INLD candidate was worth Rs 4.05 cr.
Independent candidates were the poorest, with an average net worth of just Rs 1.79 cr.
The analysis by ADR and Election Watch also revealed that 50% of the candidates have school level education only, while 43% candidates have completed graduation. 25 candidates have declared themselves Illiterate.
9% of the candidates are women, which is unchanged from 2014.
