Shekhawat declares assets, wife richer

In an apparent bid to take a high moral ground, NDA-backed presidential candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Friday made a public declaration of his assets and liabilities, which showed that he holds a bank balance of Rs 25.60 lakh and Rs 1 lakh in cash.

But his wife Suraj Kanwar is richer, with Rs 25.86 lakh in fixed deposits, Rs 1.25 lakh in cash and Rs 5,849 in savings bank account.

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj released the details at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday evening.

Shekhawat, contesting against UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil, owns jewellery worth Rs 1 lakh while his wife's gold ornaments amount to Rs 5.25 lakh and silver utensils are worth Rs 3.90 lakh.

Kanwar owns an Ambassador car of 1980 make while her husband has an army disposed vehicle registered in his name.

Shekhawat owns less than one hectare, that too ancestral, in a Sikar district village of Rajasthan, but his wife has 6.28 hectares in a Jaipur district village.

The declaration, which the vice-president made on his own after the Election Commission rejected senior BJP leader L K Advani's plea that presidential candidates should be asked to disclose their assets, showed that Shekhawat has got a 1/16th share in an ancestral house in Khachariawas village in Rajasthan.

His wife, however, owns a 1,000-sq yard plot in Jaipur, whose present value is estimated at Rs 1.54 crore. 

There is another 650-sq yard plot, worth Rs 55 lakh, in Jaipur, which has been put in a disputed claim category in her name.

Cases are pending in Rajasthan courts over 22.8 bhigas listed in Kanwar's disputed claims column in the declaration.

Both husband and wife owe no dues to banks or to any government department.

"They have no financial instruments, NSS, postal savings and LIC policies to their credit. Together they have Rs 6 lakh and 25 thousand as one 31.3.2007," Swaraj said.

The Congress dismissed as the declaration as 'political melodrama' but declined to confirm or deny whether UPA-Left
Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil will follow suit.

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that the action was nothing but a 'political melodrama'.

He said this was because no such declaration of assets has been sought under law.

Singhvi accused the BJP of taking recourse to 'shoot-and-scoot' policy by targetting Patil and demanded an apology from the saffron party for the 'unsubstantiated' campaign.

With PTI inputs