On Tuesday (14th May), Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections seeking a parliamentary seat from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. According to his election affidavit, the Prime Minister, whose rule saw the Indian economy leap from tenth to fifth place, has personal assets of only Rs 3 crores.
According to PM Modi’s 2024 election affidavit, he has Rs 52,920 cash in hand and Rs 3.02 crores invested in moveable assets. According to his affidavit submitted to the election authority amid the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, he does not own any property, a house, or a plot that falls under the category of ‘immovable assets’.
The affidavit further reveals that PM Modi’s taxable income increased from Rs 11 lakh in fiscal year 2018-19 to Rs 23.5 lakh in 2022-23. The Prime Minister also has a Fixed Deposit worth Rs 2,85,60,338 in SBI. The PM also has four gold rings weighing 45g worth Rs 2,67,750.
According to his electoral affidavit, the prime minister declared holdings of Rs 73,304 in the SBI’s Gandhinagar branch and Rs 7,000 in the Varanasi branch. Additionally, the Indian Prime Minister has no outstanding loans or dues under his name. He has Rs 9.12 lakh saved in National Savings Certificates.
The Prime Minister is described as an Ahmedabad inhabitant whose vocation is public life and political action. He completed his SSC in 1967, earned a BA degree from Delhi University in 1978, and an MA degree from Gujarat University in 1983.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi disclosed Rs 2.5 crore in assets, including residential premises in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, Rs 1.27 crore in fixed deposits, and Rs 38,750 in cash. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had declared total assets of Rs 1.65 crore.
Rahul Gandhi claims PM Modi earns crores due to ‘close relations’ with Adani-Ambani
It is crucial to note that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has time and again raised questions about the alleged association of PM Modi with multi-billionaire Indian businessmen Gautam Adani and Ambanis. Recently on 8th May, Rahul Gandhi claimed that PM Modi had allegedly been lifted by Adani and Ambanis. This is after PM Modi amid the election campaigns claimed that Gandhi had benefitted earlier due to Adani and Ambani.
Responding to the PM’s jibe, Rahul Gandhi said, “And you also know they give money in tempos. Is that your personal experience?” He then asked PM Modi to send the Enforcement Directorate and CBI to the industrialists’ residence and get the inquiry done.
Also, on 24th April, Gandhi stated that PM Modi had ‘billionaire friends’ and that the PM was allegedly waiving loans worth lakh crore of these billionaires in return for personal monetary benefits. Gandhi also claimed that PM Modi had committed a crime by ‘not thinking’ about the development of the youth of India.
PM Modi meanwhile also claimed that the opposition parties had been receiving illegal funds from Ambani and Adani and so had stopped cussing about the billionaires. “For five years you cussed out Ambani and Adani, and overnight the cussing has stopped?” Modi said while addressing an election rally in Telangana recently.
Gandhi’s affidavit discloses his richness, value of assets increased by 3583%
Notably, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi also submitted his affidavit to the election authorities as he filed a nomination from Kerala’s Wayanad for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The affidavit showed that in the last five years, the value of total assets of the Congress leader had gone up by over 28%, from over Rs 15 crore in 2019 to over Rs 20 crore in 2024. Therefore, he has become richer by over Rs 6 crore in the last 5 years.
Rahul Gandhi’s annual income in 2022-23 was Rs 1.02 crore, according to his Income Tax statement. Therefore, Rahul Gandhi’s annual income is 4 times the annual income of PM Modi. In addition to his salary and allowances as an MP, Rahul Gandhi earns rental income from properties he owns.
As per the affidavit, over half of Gandhi’s assets are immovable assets including land and commercial buildings, the current value of which is shown as Rs 11,15,02,598.00. His movable assets are worth Rs 9,24,59,264.00, and most of them are investments in shares and mutual funds. He owns shares in 25 companies, and several of them are blue chip stocks like Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, ITC, Infosys, Nestle, TCS, Britania, etc. The value of his shares is Rs 4.34 crore, while he also owns 7 mutual funds with a current value of Rs 3,81,33,572.
Along with cash in hand, in the bank, and some other assets, the total value of his movable assets is Rs 9,24,59,264.00, up from Rs 5,80,58,779 in 2014. This means, the value of his movable assets, mostly shares and mutual funds, have gone up by a whopping 60%.
As reported earlier, Rahul Gandhi has seen a steep hike in the value of his total declared assets in the last 20 years, which was just above Rs 55 lakh in 2004, and has gone up to over R 20 crore last year, an increase of 3583%.
Notably, Rahul Gandhi owns shares and mutual funds in various firms and fund managers, the value of which has increased dramatically, despite regularly insulting and assaulting the Indian corporate sector.
Modi accused of wearing suits, ‘aiding’ wealthy people
Time and again, the Congress Party and its leader Rahul Gandhi have claimed that PM Modi is the enemy of the poor people, especially the farmers and ‘a friend’ of big corporates. He has several times earlier described the Modi government as “udyogpatiyon ki sarkar”, “bade logon ki sarkar” and “suit-boot ki sarkar” (a government of capitalists, rich people, and of those dressed in suits and boots).
Also, recently in the year 2023, Gandhi criticized PM Modi for wearing expensive suits and described himself as a simple man who wears only T-shirts.
“PM wears suits worth lakhs of rupees but I wear this white T-shirt only. On one day, he wears at least 1-2 suits worth lakhs of rupees. Have you seen PM Modi repeating his clothes? I wear this one single white shirt,” Gandhi was quoted as saying.
Though Rahul Gandhi has routinely criticized PM Modi for his clothing and apparel, it is noteworthy to mention that Rahul Gandhi has often been caught living an extravagant lifestyle while pretending to be leading a humble and austere life.
The expensive taste of Gandhi was exposed by OpIndia earlier as it reported in detail about the cost of the ‘simple white shirt’ worn by Gandhi. In 2021, OpIndia exposed how Gandhi preferred wearing only foreign-branded white shirts worth Rs 11,690. The Gandhi scion had once worn a jacket worth Rs 70,000. Rahul Gandhi, however, later claimed his Burberry jacket was a ‘gift’.
Back in 2019, Rahul Gandhi had gone to check up on the workers near the Sukhdev Vihar flyover in the ashram of Delhi. While many dubbed it as an event aimed at projecting Rahul as the leader concerned about the destitute and the poor, people were quick to point out that he arrived wearing a shoe of Rs 13,500 to know the condition of poor laborers and migrants.
In 2015 also, Rahul Gandhi was found sporting a Ralph Lauren t-shirt that retails at anywhere upward of Rs 12,000. Ironically he was wearing these expensive clothes even while attacking the ruling government over ‘suit boot’.
Conclusion
While Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, in general, have been criticizing PM Modi for living a royal lifestyle and allegedly ignoring the plight of the poor farmers, it is clear as per the documents that it is actually Gandhi who is richer and ignorant of the poor in the country. Gandhi in the past claimed that PM Modi concentrated on wearing suits worth crores, but he himself has never given up on his royal lifestyle which includes a ‘simple white shirt’ costing worth Rs 12,000.
Notably, the asset value of the Gandhi scion has gone up by 3583% since 2004 with him getting richer by Rs 6 crore in just the past 5 years without doing any profitable, valuable activity. In fact, the Gandhi leader has allegedly committed double the expense in a bid to grow the Congress party which is seeing its downing end while on the edge of the Lok Sabha elections poll. While Gandhi continues to allege PM Modi’s alleged ‘illegal’ source of income, the party or the leader himself must first disclose his own source of ‘illegal’ money and association with Adani and Ambani if any as claimed by PM Modi.
General elections are being held in India from 19th April to 1st June 2024 in seven phases, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 4th June 2024.
