Farming and MLA Salaries Responsible for Asset Increases?

Polling in Chhattisgarh ended on Tuesday; however, the other five states, for which the election season has started, will go to the polls on November 28 and December 7 respectively. Based on election affidavits submitted by candidates, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has released reports on the change in assets of the recontesting members of the legislative assemblies (MLA) of Mizoram and Chhattisgarh respectively. Mizoram has four out of 37 recontesting MLAs with an asset increase of over 100 per cent, whereas, in Chhattisgarh, the figure is 24 out of 69.

Mizoram

In Mizoram, the highest increase has been noted by Lalrinliana Sailo, who, in 2013 was elected on a Congress ticket, but is now contesting for the Mizo National Front (MNF). Sailo’s assets went from around Rs 36 lakh in 2013 to around Rs 3 crore in 2018. Sailo is followed by R Vanlalvena of the Congress, who has seen a 133 per cent increase in his assets. In this case, his assets went from around Rs. 29 lakhs to around Rs. 67 lakhs. Dr. K Beichhua of the MNF has reported an increase of 129 per cent. In monetary value, his assets went from around Rs. 1 crore to around Rs. 3 crore. All three recontesting MLAs have reported the same sources of income; their MLA salary and their spouses’ salaries as government employees. Lal Thanzara of the Congress has reported a 104 per cent increase in assets, and has only provided his source of income, which is salary for being a minister. His assets went from around Rs 1 crore to around Rs 2 crore.

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It is interesting that in case of Mizoram, most of the recontesting MLAs with dramatic percentage increases in their assets also have spouses who are government employees. These drastic increases could be a result of a politician-bureaucrat nexus, or may be completely unrelated. In the case of Lalrinliana Sailo, his spouse T Lalthangpuii is an inspector in the Mizoram police. R Vanlalvena’s spouse Lalsiamliani is a meter reader in the Power and Electricity Department of the Mizoram government. Dr. K Beichhua’s spouse is a government doctor in Mizoram. Lal Thanzara’s spouse is a homemaker as per his election affidavit.

Chhattisgarh

The top four recontesting MLAs with exponential increases in their assets all had increases of above 300 per cent. Of the top four, Dilip Lahariya of the Congress reported a whopping 2,590 per cent increase in his assets. His assets went from around Rs. 5 lakh to around Rs. 1 crore. The number two with a high increase in assets is Amar Agrawal from the Bharatiya Janata Party. His assets went from around Rs 2 crore to around Rs 23 crore, which works out to an increase of 840 per cent. Chintamani Maharaj of the Congress reported an increase of 427 per cent. His assets went from around Rs. 37 lakh to around Rs. 1 crore. Deepak Kumar Baij of the Congress reported an increase of 384 per cent. His assets went from around Rs. 10 lakh to around Rs. 51 lakh. All three recontesting Congress MLAs reported agriculture and salary as sources of income, some included rent, interest payments and dividends as well. The BJP MLA, however, did not report agriculture as a source of income. His source was entirely from his salary, rent and interest payments and included his spouse’s business rent dividend and interest income.

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It has been reported that only 46 per cent of paddy produced in Chhattisgarh has been procured by the government. The government pays the minimum support price on procured produce as a safety measure in case the market price is lower than the input cost. It is no secret that Indian agriculture is in a sorry state. Farmers have protested and have even been shot for demanding a better deal from the government. This is why it is amazing that in Chhattisgarh, many of the recontesting MLAs with large percentage increases in their assets have declared agriculture as a source of income.