Lucknow, May 27: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati enhanced her assets by more than 65 per cent after she took over as Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2007.
Mayawati had assets worth Rs 52 crore in 2007, which has grown to Rs 86 crore in these three years, according to the affidavit filed by her on Wednesday while seeking re-election to the legislative council.
An addition to her property are plots 23 and 24 in the posh Sardar Patel Marg of New Delhi worth Rs 54.08 crore. The chief minister had assets of Rs 15 crore when she contested the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
Mayawati declared in her affidavit that she has four commercial and residential buildings in the national Capital, including a 43,000 square ft building built on Sardar Patel Marg.
While Mayawati, whose official fleet constitutes of more than two dozen cars, doesn’t own any vehicle or agricultural land, she owns commercial and residential property in New Delhi and Lucknow worth Rs 75 crore, the affidavit stated. According to it, she owns commercial space at No. 3, Block B, Connaught Place (3628.02 sq ft, worth Rs 2.05 crore) and No.
B-34, First floor, Connaught Place (4535.02 sq ft, worth Rs 1.27 crore). She also owns commercial space at No. 1, Commercial Centre, Okhla, Phase 1 (34112.26sq ft, worth Rs 15.50 crore), besides the Sardar Patel Marg building worth Rs 54.08 crore.
In Lucknow, she has a residence — Bungalow No. 3, Nehru Road, 105, Cantonment area. It is spread over an area of 1.08 acre and it is worth Rs 1.79 crore. In her affidavit in June 2007, when she was contesting the Assembly council bypoll, she had declared her assets worth Rs 52 crore. Then, she had declared three commercial and two residential buildings in New Delhi worth Rs 37.82 crore.
Interestingly, according to her latest affidavit, the value of her three commercial buildings in New Delhi has not increased in the last three years. According to her latest affidavit, she has Rs 12.95 lakh in cash and Rs 11.39 crore in banks and other financial institutions. In 2007, she had Rs 12.88 crore in banks and financial institutions and about Rs 51 lakh in cash.
She also has diamond, gold and silver jewellery and other valuables worth Rs 90 lakh and murals worth Rs 15 lakh. In 2007, she had jewellery worth Rs 51 lakh which has now gone up to Rs 86 lakh.
She also has a silver dinner set worth Rs 4.5 lakh. Along with seven BSP candidates, Mayawati filed nominations for the biennial state Legislative Council polls scheduled on June 10. They filed two sets of papers, said returning officer and principal secretary (assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey.
The other candidates who filed their nominations were Satish Chandra Jatav (Farrukhabad), Rishipal (Muzaffarnagar), Ram Kumar Kuriel (Hardoi), Subodh Kumar Parashar (Bijnore), Mohammad Athar Khan (Ambedkar Nagar), Lalchand Nishad (Sant Kabirnagar) and Virendra Kumar Chauhan (Jaunpur).
Their terms expire on July 6. While Mayawati or the BSP did not explain how she has amassed the wealth, she is believed to have told the income tax department that her assets were the result of small donations from supporters.
UP Samajwadi Party chief and Opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav said: “She has looted the people of the state. She has fixed a rate for every project and also earns through transfers and postings.”
“She amassed this wealth as kickbacks from ministers and bureaucrats,” UP Congress Committee spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh alleged. He alleged that whatever the BSP chief declared is “only a fraction of her assets”.
According to the income tax department, Mayawati and her family had acquired 131 property in Lucknow, Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Bijnore and Delhi in recent years through “small donations”, which were said to add up to more than Rs 120 crore, Singh said.
—Agencies