Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal may be on opposite sides of the political fence but they have recorded the highest increase in assets in the last five years among the 101 MLAs who are re-contesting the February 20 Punjab assembly polls.

Sukhbir, a Lok Sabha member from Ferozepur who is now contesting from Jalalabad assembly segment, has recorded a rise of over Rs 100 crore in his assets. Whereas Manpreet, CongressMLA from Bathinda Urban, has declared an increase of over Rs 32 crore in his assets between 2017 and 2022 assembly polls. Manpreet’s father and former MP late Gurdas Singh Badal was brother of Sukhbir’s father and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Other three re-contesting MLAs among the top five with highest increase in assets include Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) MLA from Sunam Aman Arora, former chief minister and Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) president contesting from Patiala Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress MLA Angad Singh from Nawanshahr, now contesting as an independent candidate.

Analyses of the self-sworn affidavits of these 101 re-contesting MLAs by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Punjab Election Watch also reveal that assets of 78 MLAs (77%) have gone up between 2% and 2,954% and assets of 21 MLAs (21%) have decreased from -2% to -74%.
It has also come to fore that the average assets growth of the 101 re-contesting MLAs between the Punjab assembly elections in 2017 and 2022 polls is Rs 2.76 crore(21%). In 2017, the asset growth was at an average of Rs 13.34 crore while it has risen to Rs 16.10 crore in 2022.