Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today took a dig at the sharp rise of income of Congress and SAD MLAs in the last five years and said that MLAs of both these parties are have windfall of money from common interest in illegal mining, drugs and transport business being run in collusion by handful of leaders from ruling and opposition parties.Gurpreet Singh Waraich state convener of AAP in a statement said that an analysis made by the Association for Democratic rights has made a sensational disclosure that average assets of 94 out of 117 MLAs has jumped by Rs.3 crores while 13 MLA are such whose assets have doubled in five years. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is one of them whose assets have doubled in five years, from Rs.6.75 crores to Rs. 14.88 crores.He said that it was interesting that Congress MLAs with average assets of Rs.18.88 crores against Rs.13.88 crores in 2012 had made more money than their counter parts in SAD and BJP. He said that assets of Badal family members and Bikram Singh Majithia have grown manifold. He said that while people of state were getting poorer and economy of state is crumbling, the rise in the assets of a certain political leaders raises the eyebrows.Waraich said that the AAP leader Bhagwant Mann who is pitted against Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal from Jalalbad was an exception whose assets have dipped from Ra.4.60 crore to Rs.1.99 crore, about 54 percent drop in two years. He said that on the contrary Sukhbir Badal has total assets of 102 crores, almost 100 crrres more than Mann.
Waraich said that Figures of income declared by these political personalities are only tip of the iceberg and they must be hiding more than they have revealed. He said that those in the legal business might have pumped part of black money earned from illegal trades into their companies. The way these leaders have been spending money in the elections, it is becoming evident that ill gotten money is being used in the elections. He said that Jagjit Singh Chahal of Amritsar who was arrested in drug case had told the ED that Rs. 37 lakhs of funds given by him were used in the election of Bikram Singh Majitha.He said that apart from candidates, the three political parties SAD, Congress and BJP have also shown their source of income “unknown” and didn’t name the donors. He said that SAD has 94 percent hidden income, Congress 823 percent and BJP 65 percent. He said that AAP was demanding transparency in the donations being paid to political parties. The AAP has also approached Election Commission of India to account for donations of political parties but the two main parties Congress and BJP are opposed to it.Waraich said that in the last one year the income of political parties from unknown sources have risen by 313 percent which is an alarming figure. He demanded that every penny donated to political parties shall be counted for and names of donors be declared. He said that big corporate houses were funding big parties to influence elections which are not good signs for health of democracy.