Thiruvananthapuram: In an X post on Thursday, BJP's Thiruvananthapuram candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed accusations of glaring mismatches in his election affidavit saying that it was an "obvious attempt to distract voters from main issues of progress, development, jobs, skills and investments."
His post begins with a promise to bare his side of the story. "Since Cong is planning to run a campaign abt my Rs 680 as taxable income in the year 2021-22 (assessed in 22-23) here are the facts, all of which are in my mandatory disclosures," Rajeev began his tweet.
As it turns out, the union minister is silent about many of the charges brought against him. He deals with just two - the surprisingly low taxable income (5.59 lakh) of a supposedly ultra rich politician during 2022-23 and the virtually nil taxable income (Rs 680) in 2021-22. And these, he disposes of in one-liners.
About the taxable income in 2022-23, he says: " I am ONLY in public life for several years and my income is derived only MP/minister salary, perks and interest/dividend from savings/investments." (sic).
As for the Rs 680 taxable income in the previous fiscal, here is Rajeev’s rationale: "Year 2021-2022 my taxable income was sharply reduced becoz of partnership losses incurred durng the Covid period." (sic)
Curiously, Rajeev sidestepped the charges related to movable and immovable assets. In the annexure showing details of movable assets, the gross total value is shown as Rs 9.25 crore. The charge is that he has not included the value of certain movable assets in the gross total value. His investment in bonds, debentures/shares, and units in companies/mutual funds and others, as shown in the affidavit, is approximately Rs 45 crore, but this is not factored in.
Interestingly, as noted in an Onmanorama report, there is mismatch in the movable asset values declared in the same affidavit. The abstract of the details shown in another annexure puts the value of movable assets at Rs 13.69 crore, Rs 4.43 crore more than in the other annexure.
The other major charge is about immovable assets. Rajeev has declared Rs 14.40 crore as immovable assets but this does not include his home in a posh area in Koramangala, Bengaluru. It is this home he has given as his address in the affidavit.
Fact is, Rajeev has shown this house as his own property in the property tax return he had filed with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
Another declaration that was challenged was Rajeev's claim that he owned only a motorcycle, a 1942 Model Red Indian Scout. The implication was that Rajeev had no other vehicles either in his or his wife's or even in his children's names.
The non-mention in the affidavit of Jupiter Capital, the website of which still has Rajeev's name as founder, was also questioned. However, Rajeev chose to ignore most of the charges.
Save the two one-liner counters, the rest of the post is devoted to blowing his own trumpet ("My 18 year career in public life has been totally free from any blemish despite many attempts by various Congies includng their recent attmpts aftr my entry into Thiruvanthapuram" sic.) and personal attacks on the premier Congress family and his rival Shashi Tharoor ("Irony certainly died whn Cong whose first family is on trial for stealing properties and transferrng it to their name surreptiously and other shenanigans and a candidate who had to resign as minister for his illegal IPL "interests" start talking abt disclosures and taxation." sic.)
On April 9, the Election Commission of India had asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes to verify the information provided by Rajeev in his affidavit. Rajeev had welcomed this, tweeting soon after: "Theres some queries I hv recd tdy abt response of @ECISVEEP to this "complaint" by the Cong. Scrutiny by ECI or CBDT is a good way to blow a hole in #CongPoliticsOfLies."
