Poor India, rich politicians

Those looking to see just how fast India is growing would do well to see the growth in assets of elected representatives.

According to data collated by the Delhi-based Liberty Institute's 'Empowering India' project, the average assets of candidates contesting in the assembly elections in the capital grew by around 47 per cent per annum between 2003 and 2008 - while average assets were Rs 24 lakh in 2003, these rose to Rs 167 lakh in 2008.

Averages, of course, hide the full picture - in Delhi, for instance, 146 out of 817 candidates declared zero assets in 2003.

Average assets for Congress party candidates rose from Rs 92 lakh to Rs 321 lakh and those for BJP candidates from Rs 56 lakh to Rs 300 lakh.

For Karnataka, the average assets rose from Rs 53 lakh to Rs 204 lakh - that for Congress MLA candidates rose from Rs 120 lakh to Rs 875 lakh, and for BJP candidates from Rs 88 lakh to Rs 384 lakh.

The increase in assets, interestingly, has little to do with a party being in power in the state. Assets of BJP candidates, for instance, grew faster than those of Congress candidates in Delhi; in Madhya Pradesh, assets of Congress candidates grew faster.

APPRECIATING ASSET CLASS Assets per candidate, in Rs lakh
	2003			2008
	Average#	Congress	BJP*	Average#	Congress	BJP*
Delhi	24.33	91.98	55.51	166.98	320.96	299.55
Chhattisgarh	17.37	52.53	24.86	31.52	114.1	57.51
MP	17.09	23.63	24.18	--	152.26	96.08
Karnataka	52.66	119.93	87.86	203.58	874.74	383.6
Rajasthan	32.98	86.98	56.55	--	--	--
Mizoram	38.76	45.68	63.93	82.67	95.22	174.01
* Refers to MNF in the case of Mizoram    # Average for all parties Source: www.empoweringindia.org, Liberty Institute