Days after there were allegations and complaints that union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who will be contesting against Congress’s Shashi Tharoor for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, has misrepresented information regarding his income and assets in his poll affidavit, the Election Commission of India has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes to verify any mismatch, sources said.
The ECI had received complaints from the Congress about inconsistencies in the actual and declared assets in Chandrasekhar’s affidavit.
“As per procedure, the ECI today directed CBDT to check the affidavit and verify the mismatch, if any. According to rule any mismatch and falsification of an affidavit is dealt with under Section 125 A of the RP Act 1951,” sources said.
Concealing any information in the nomination paper or affidavit is a punishable offence that can attract imprisonment of up to six months or a fine, or both.
The union minister has denied all charges and said, “All my disclosures are compliant with the law”.
Chandrasekhar submitted his papers to the ECI on April 4 for the second phase of polling on April 26.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), an alliance of left-wing political parties in Kerala, and the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Congress-led alliance, have submitted their complaints to the poll body over the last few days.
The LDF claimed that Chandrasekhar hid details of his major holding company, Jupiter Capital, while only declaring the subsidiary companies.
As per his affidavit, Chandrasekhar has declared assets worth Rs 36 crore. However, in a series of posts on social media site X, the Kerala Congress claimed that the BJP candidate has not declared two of his properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees which are in the posh neighbourhood of Koramangala 3rd Block, Bengaluru, which are in the same compound.
URGENT ATTN | We've accessed the petition regarding the False Affidavit filed by Rajeev Chandrasekhar.The complaint was filed to @ECISVEEP @collectortvpm and EC Observer. Rajeev has declared assets of only 36 Cr. The whole world knows that he is a billionaire (8000 Cr) (1/n) pic.twitter.com/o7Df2yndUj
— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) April 5, 2024
All the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will go for polls on April 26 in the second phase. The counting of the votes will take place on June 4.
