Jammu: Union minister Jitendra Singh, who is fighting his third Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur parliamentary constituency, recorded a growth of over 100 percent in his wealth over the past 10 years, according to his poll affidavit.
The moveable and immovable assets of Mr Singh's wife Manju – a housewife whose source of income is interest from bank deposits -- also increased from over Rs 65.42 lakh in 2014 to over Rs 1.54 crore, a comparison of his affidavits of 2014 and 2024 showed.
The 67-year-old Singh, a retired medicine professor, filed his nomination papers including the mandatory affidavit from the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday.
Mr Singh retained Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 defeating Congresss' Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh, by a huge margin of 3,53,272 votes.
In 2014, Mr Singh had defeated former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad by 60,976 votes and assumed charge as minister of state in the Prime Minister's office.
In his latest affidavit, the minister put the value of his movable assets at Rs 3.33 crore and immovable assets at Rs 3.71 crore; and his wife's movable assets at Rs Rs 88.88 lakh and immovable assets at Rs 66 lakhs in 2024.
In 2014, he had declared his movable assets at Rs 88.22lakh and immovable assets of Rs 2.31 crore, while his wife's movable assets were declared at Rs 65.42 lakh.
His latest wealth included Rs 45,000 cash in hand (self) and Rs 55,000 (wife), six banks accounts for self having over Rs 1.11 crore, three bank accounts with over Rs 8.37 lakh in the name of his wife, besides nearly four dozen Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs) worth over Rs two crore together.
The assets also included a residential house in Jammu on the name of Singh and a flat in Delhi and non-agricultural land (in Garhwal) in the name of his wife, and two private vehicles including one luxury car and 40 and 50 tolas of gold worth Rs 13.30 lakh and Rs 16.50 lakhs by husband and wife, respectively.
In 2019, the movable assets of the minister stood at Rs 1.84 crore and his spouse's at Rs 57.87 lakh, while the immovable assets were Rs 4.02 crore for himself and Rs 63.20 lakh in the name of his wife.
According to the latest affidavit, Mr Singh had filed his income tax returns for the last five financial years – Rs 33,17,330 (2022-23), Rs 31,65,330 (2021-22), Rs 25,75,940 (2020-21), Rs 29,58,240 (2019-20) and Rs 29,49,872 (2018-19). His wife has also filed her income tax returns ranging between Rs 4-6 lakhs during the same period.
The minister has no criminal case pending against him and also has no liability.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)