From Vadodara to Varanasi, Narendra Modi has become richer by Rs 14.34 lakh in a fortnight. His party — the BJP — is finding it hard to explain his sudden affluence.
The irony is that the BJP has been hitting out at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra for his rapid increase in income over the past one week. Now, its leader’s prosperity has put the party in a tight spot.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday had disclosed total assets worth Rs 1.65 crore — a rise of Rs 14.34 lakh from his declaration for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat about a fortnight ago. He had filed nomination in Vadodara on April 9 and in Varanasi on April 24.
According to the affidavit filed for the Varanasi seat, the rise in Modi’s assets is on account of higher cash in hand and increase in bank balance.
The cash in hand of the BJP leader has increased by Rs 3,000 while the bank balance has seen a rise of Rs 14.31 lakh from the amounts disclosed in Vadodara. All other details are same in the two documents.
As the news spread that the exponential jump in Modi’s assets was not because he had joined any special investment plan, the BJP got into the fire-fighting mode. The party claimed that the additional funds in Modi’s account was the fallout of the money transferred by the party to take care of his election expenses and the difference of Rs 3,000 in the amount under category of “cash in hand” is “routine cash flow difference”.
In his affidavit filed in Vadodara, for the first time Modi had admitted at having been married to Jashodaben. In the Varanasi affidavit also he mentions her, but it does not reflect other details like her assets or profession.
Besides defending the spurt in Modi’s assets, the BJP today had to counter Priyanka Gandhi’s jibes for the third consecutive day. Priyanka on Friday renewed the allegation that her brother Rahul Gandhi had earlier made: the Gujarat model of development is the one in which “thousands of acres” of land is given to “friends” of chief minister Narendra Modi at “throwaway prices”.
Countering Priyanka, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javedkar said: “Since Rahul Gandhi is not effective, they are putting forward Priyanka Vadra. Why don’t they explain why the Haryana government has given acres of land to Robert Vadra? It is funny that Priyanka Vadra is making a virtue out of corruption and is playing the victim here.”
The BJP also shrugged off the Congress complaint to the Election Commission against Modi’s roadshow in Varanasi ahead of filing his nomination on Thursday. The Congress claimed that the roadshow violated code of conduct as polling was going on in 117 constituencies while Modi’s road show was being telecast live by most TV channels.
“The Election Commission itself had given us the date to file nomination. So the Congress charge should be against it and not us. And as far as their attack against media is concerned, TV will show the hit news not flop show,” Javedkar said.
