Moneybags continue to be attracted to politics with the number of crorepatis contesting in Haryana assembly polls increasing from 32% in 2009 to 42% in 2014.
Of the 1343 candidates analyzed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) 563 are crorepatis up from 380 crorepatis in 2009 (1186 analyzed). There are nine candidates with assets above Rs 100 crore including Venod Sharma with Rs 153 crore (Ambala), Gopal Kanda Rs 114 crore (Sirsa) and Savitri Jindal (Hisar) with assets of Rs 113 crore.
About 122 candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 10 crore up from 41 candidates in 2009. The average assets per candidate contesting in 2014 elections is Rs 4.54 crore up from Rs 2.05 crore in 2009. The average assets of 67 re-contesting MLAs has also increased fron Rs 7.30 crore in 2009 to Rs 18.71 crore in 2014. The average asset growth of re-contesting MLAs is Rs. 11.41 crore or 156%.
Candidates with the highest personal income include Rohtas (Rs 67 crore) and Abhay Singh Chautala from INLD (Rs 2 crore) and BJP's Vipul Goyal (Rs 2 crore).
Reassuringly the number of tainted candidates has come down. In 2014 the number of candidates with serious criminal charges pending against them is 5% while 94 (7%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2009 the number of candidates with criminal cases was 109 or 9% out of 1186 candidates.
About 9 (10%) out of 90 candidates from BJP, 4 (4%) out of 90 candidates from INC, 10 (11%) out of 88 candidates from INLD, 10 (15%) out of 65 candidates fielded by Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) have criminal cases pending against them.
A significant number of candidates have at least passed high school. While 37 candidates have declared that they are illiterate, 756 (56%) candidates have educational qualification of 12th grade or below and 525 (39%) candidates have declared themselves to hold a bachelors degree or above.
About 917 (68%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 50 years while 380 (28%) candidates have declared their age to be between 51 to 70 years and 16 (1%) candidates have declared their age to be above 71 years.
