Crorepathis hogging limelight in electoral arena

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Chennai, Apr 21: The May eight Assembly election in Tamil Nadu is all set to be a battle of crorepathis, with DMK President M Karunanidhi topping the list of richest candidates with declared assets worth about Rs 26.53 crore.

Closely following him is AIADMK General Secretary and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who had declared assets both movable and immovable worth about Rs 25 crore.

Actor-politician Vijaykanth, various state ministers, DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan, Mr Karunanidhi's son and DMK Deputy General Secretary M K Stalin, actor and DMK nominee for Mylapore seat D Napolean are among the notable crorepathis, who have jumped into the electoral fray.

On the contrary, the poorest candidate in fray could probably be the Marxist Leninist nominee for Tiruchengode constituency in Namakkal district.

Thenmozhi, declared in an affidavit, that she owned no movable or immovable assets and had only Rs 94 in cash.

Forest brigand Veerappan's widow, Muthulakshmi, who sprang a surprise by filing nomination for the Pennagaram seat in Dharmapuri district, declared that she had deposits to the tune of Rs 3.40 lakh in two banks in Salem, besides owning a plot at Suramangalam.

However, the Government has freezed her savings bank account, she has said.

The poorest member in Jayalalithaa's Cabinet could be Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister and AIADMK nominee for the Sankarankovil reserved constituency C Karuppasamy, who has declared assets worth Rs 1.30 lakh and an Ambassador car.

Interestingly, many of his cabinet colleagues have declared that they own property worth crores of rupees.

A total of 4,218 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Assembly election. However, a final picture will emerge after today's scrutiny of nominations and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 24.

The DMK chief and four-time Chief Minister, who filed his papers for the Chepauk seat seeking election for a record eleventt time, has declared he and his wives -- Dayalu Ammal and Rajathi Ammal -- owned property worth about Rs 26.53 crore. These include fixed deposits, saving bank accounts and investments in the Tamil Nadu Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and Sakthi Finance.

While Ms Dayalu Ammal had investments in NSC, owned a Honda Accord and a Tata Indica, apart from jewellery, Ms Rajathi Ammal owned Tamilkani publications, worth Rs 20.76 lakh and Royal Furniture (Rs 5.46 lakh). She had 800 grams gold ornaments.

In her affidavit,Ms Jayalalithaa declared cash of Rs 20,000, five cars, about Rs two crore deposits in banks, financial institutions and non-banking financial companies and Rs 50,000 in bonds, debentures and shares in companies.

She also has houses, commercial buildings and agriculture lands in Chennai and Andhra Pradesh worth Rs 11.65 crore. Her share in Jaya Publications and in Sasi Enterprises is worth about Rs 11 crore. Mr Vijaykanth, who is making his debut in Vridhachalam constituency, declared assets, including those of his family, worth over Rs 12.50 crore.

These include jewellery, agricultural lands, buildings, shares and vehicles.

Mr Napolean, who is crossing swords with film colleague and AIADMK nominee S V Sekar in Mylapore, has declared that he owned assets worth Rs four crore.

Mr Sekar, in his affidavit, declared the value of his assets at Rs 1.75 crore.

UNI

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