Crorepati club make it to 17th LS from Punjab

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

It seems that politics has become a game only for super rich in Punjab. Rs 32.5 crore is the average wealth of 13 MPs who were elected from the state during the 2019 General Election. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, average wealth of the MPs from Punjab was Rs 18.23 crore despite four MPs being elected from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

As per the assets declared before the Election Commission of India, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal were the richest MPs, with each declaring assets worth Rs 200 crore. The couple was followed by Sunny Deol, who declared assets of Rs 87.19 crore and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s wife Preenet Kaur with Rs 63.59 crore assets.

The poorest is the BJP MP Som Parkash, who has assets worth Rs 2.94 crore and got elected from the Hoshiarpur constituency.

Though wealth cannot be a parameter for electoral success but it matters in case one wants to contest polls from the established parties. In total, there were total 278 candidates in fray for the 13 Lok Sabha seats and of them 67 were crorepatis.

The average wealth of the SAD’s candidates was Rs 51.93 crore, BSP Rs 47.65 crore, BJP 41.39 crore, Congress Rs 23.08 crore , AAP Rs 3.73 crore and Punjab Ekta Party was Rs 20.58 crore.

Only crorepati candidates contested from the Congress, SAD and BJP. Eight crorepatis contested from the AAP. The Punjab Ekta Party, Lok Insaaf Party and BSP which fielded three candidates each had two candidates as crorepatis. Out of 123 independents, 14 were crorepatis. “The way money is being spent to win the elections, there is hardly any doubt left that common man can contest polls,” said Parvinder Kittna of the Association for Democratic Reforms.