Second phase of Bihar state election in 94 assembly constituencies is going to be held on November 3. In this context, some shocking facts have appeared about the contenders for these assembly seats. Approximately 15 percent of the candidates have not filed their income tax returns regardless of their income.

These expositions have come to the fore in the affidavits of various contenders in the election. It was found out in their nomination forms which are submitted before the election department officials upload them on the website of the Election Commission of India (ECI) as well as the districts official sites.

In total 1,463 persons had filed their papers to contest from the various seats. However, more than 200 contestants out of them have not even filed their income tax returns before filing the papers for the election. The candidates from the 11 constituencies of Muzaffarpur district have topped the chart as approximately 42% of them have not filed their income tax returns. There are a total of 95 candidates in the fight for ballot this time from these 11 seats. Pramod Kumar, a social activist and an independent data analyst from Muzaffarpur stated that 40 out of the 95 have confessed through affidavits that they had never filed their income tax returns.

Many other interesting truths have come out in this regard. One among them is that they have not mentioned their permanent account number (PAN) (issued by the income tax department) for various financial transactions in spite of having an income of over Rs 5 lakh per annum, the lower limit of filing an ITR for any financial year.

Pramod Kumar asserted that it points out that most of the candidates are financially illiterate though they have deep pockets. Ironically the three richest candidates in the list have never filed their ITRs and strangely they have declared this in their affidavits. Jagdish Prasad Verma, RLSP candidate from Patna Sahib is one of them. Chandrika Rai of JD(U) from Parsa in Saran and Suman Kumar Mahaseth of VIP are the other two candidates. Verma had confessed that his income is Rs. 11 crore per annum, while Rai and Mahaseth earn Rs. 11 crore and Rs. 9 crore respectively.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.