Punjab : Sukbhir Singh Badal (SAD) has the highest annual income at Rs 4.58 crores. He is followed by Parkash Singh Badal (SAD) at 2.00 crores, Rana Gurjit Singh (INC) at 1.59 crores, Kewal Singh Dhillon (INC) at 1.53 crores and Deep Malhotra (SAD) at 1.10 crores as per their last filed income tax returns.
A total of 92 candidates (23%) out of 408 candidates analyzed by the Punjab Election Watch for Punjab Assembly Elections have declared that they have never filed income tax returns.
Out of the 92 candidates analyzed who have never filed IT returns, INC has 15 (13%) out of 116, SAD has 11 (12%) out of 93, PPP has 20 (22%) out of 89 and BSP has 27 (44%) out of 61 and BJP has 1 (5%) out of 21 candidates have not filed IT returns.
Top three candidates with maximum assets but who have never filed IT returns are Karan Kaur of INC contesting from Muktsar with total assets of Rs 128 crore, followed by Ramanjit Singh Sikki of INC contesting from Khadoor Sahib and Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD contesting from Nakodar have total assets worth Rs 20.12 crore and Rs 13.71 crore respectively.
47 (12%) candidates do not have a PAN number of which 5 are from INC, 5 from SAD, 7 from PPP and 18 from BSP.
Top three candidates with maximum assets but not declared their PAN card details are Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD contesting from Nakodar with total assets of Rs 13.71 crore, followed by Brahm Mohindra of INC contesting from Patiala Rural and Sikander Singh an independent candidate contesting from Rampura Phul have total assets of Rs 6.49 crore and Rs 6.32 crore respectively.
Punjab Election Watch and ADR appeal to the voters of Punjab to know what their candidates write in their affidavits so that they can make an informed choice on 30 January 2012.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGOs and other citizen led organizations, have been working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India. Punjab Election Watch (PEW) has analyzed 408 affidavits of candidates contesting the elections in Punjab. This report is based on the analysis of these affidavits. There are a total of 117 constituencies going for polls in Punjab 2012 Assembly Elections. The following pages give party- wise and candidate-wise analysis of income tax returns and PAN details of the contesting candidates.