KOCHI: Congress leaders Avani Bansal, of Madhya Pradesh, and Renjith Thomas, of Bengaluru, have approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the district election officer, to issue a reasoned order on their complaint against Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the NDA candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, alleging that he has filed a false affidavit about his assets and income in his nomination papers. The petitioners alleged that despite filing the complaint on the date of the scrutiny of nomination, the returning officer is yet to issue any order.
The petitioners alleged that denying any order against the complaints made also amounts to ‘sitting on the complaint’, leading to violation of their ‘right to know’ whether the errors pointed out in the affidavit have been accepted or denied.
The petition stated that Rajeev Chandrasekhar had omitted significant assets in his asset declaration, including properties such as his house, luxury cars and private jets which he owns.
He has failed to declare the book value of the companies as mandated by the Election Commission of India.
The book value of the four holding companies shown in the affidavit is `6.38 crore, whereas it is `1,610.53 crore according to the filings made by these companies with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Hence, the declaration of assets by the BJP candidates is inaccurate, stated the petitioners.