Poll accounts closed, PM’s assets drop by Rs 40 lakh

His bank balance now stands at Rs 1.32 lakh as compared to the Rs 26.05 lakh in April.

Between April 7 and August 18 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assets came down by Rs 39.79 lakh. The drop was primarily due to the fact that two of his bank accounts, which were opened for election purposes during the Lok Sabha elections and had Rs 25.57 lakh parked in them, no longer feature in Modi’s latest asset details.

The affidavit filed by Modi in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls had listed a total Rs 26.05 lakh as his bank balances in four banks accounts. Of this, Rs 25.57 lakh was parked in two Bank of India savings accounts opened for general election purposes — one each for Vadodara and Varanasi. Both these accounts have ostensibly been closed post elections and do not find a mention in the PM’s latest asset details.

Also, the number of Prime Minister’s fixed deposits have come down from 17 during the Lok Sabha polls to 11 now, bringing down the amounts parked therein from Rs 32.48 lakh to around Rs 17 lakh.

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In the latest disclosure about the assets and liabilities of the Prime Minister and Union Council of Ministers, made on the Prime Minister’s official website, Modi has declared Rs 38,700 as cash in hand, which is Rs 6,000 more than what he had declared in April.

Also, his bank balance now stands at Rs 1.32 lakh as compared to the Rs 26.05 lakh in April. The value of the four gold rings Modi owns has come down from Rs 1.35 lakh in April to around Rs 1.20 lakh now. Another addition to the PM’s kitty is the Rs 50,000 he had deposited as election deposits in Vadodara and Varanasi which got refunded after he won from both constituencies. As was the case in his April affidavit, Modi has stated “not known” in all the columns meant to have information about his spouse Jashodaben.

The latest disclosures reveal Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley as the richest minister with assets of over Rs 72 crore while Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s latest assets worth Rs 2.56 crore show an increase of Rs 4.69 lakh.

Only five of the 22 cabinet ministers are not crorepatis, the latest information states.

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At assets worth Rs 20.45 lakh, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu figures amongst the five ministers with least assets.

With assets worth Rs 39.88 lakh, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan also figures amongst five cabinet ministers who are not crorepatis — Labour and Employment Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Health Minister Harshvardhan and Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar being the other ones.

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Narendra Modi