Amit Shah's assets grew threefold in 5 years, Smriti Irani yet to graduate, reveal RS elections affidavits

Ahmedabad: BJP chief Amit Shah’s assets grew three times in five years while Union minister Smriti Irani has not completed her graduation, according to their affidavits for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. BJP’s Balwantsinh Rajput, who recently resigned from the Congress, has emerged as the richest candidate with assets worth Rs 315 crore. In her affidavit, Irani, whose educational qualification attracted controversy after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has clearly mentioned she has not completed her graduation yet. “Bachelor of Commerce, Part 1. Three year degree course not completed,” her latest affidavit says. [caption id=“attachment_3469658” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Smriti Irani. PTI[/caption] In her 2014 affidavit, she had only mentioned ‘Bachelor of Commerce Part 1, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi, 1994’. She has also declared that she, along with her husband, owns assets worth around Rs 7 crore. According to Shah’s affidavit, his movable as well as immovable properties, including his wife’s, stand at around Rs 34.40 crore, including Rs 10.38 crore ancestral property. In his 2012 affidavit for the Assembly polls, the cumulative value of the assets mentioned by him was around Rs 11.15 crore. This suggests his assets grew almost three times in five years. In his affidavit, Congress’ candidate Ahmed Patel has declared assets worth around Rs 6.50 crore, which includes assets in his wife’s name. In 2011, movable as well as immovable assets declared by Patel were worth around Rs 3.66 crore, which suggest a near two-fold increase. In 2012, the total value of assets possessed by Rajput, when he was with the Congress, as well as his wife’s, was around Rs 260 crore. For the three Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat, which would go for polls on 8 August, the BJP has fielded Shah, Irani and Rajput, while the Congress has nominated Ahmed Patel. They have filed their nominations and their affidavits have been uploaded on the state Assembly website.