New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva on Thursday questioned how Arvind Kejriwal, a retired officer who served as Chief Minister and MLA, could have an average annual income of merely Rs 2.5 lakh, as claimed in his election affidavit.
Sachdeva, Media Head Praveen Shankar Kapoor and Nitin Tyagi also raised doubts over the alleged manipulation of figures in the affidavit on the AAP leader’s salary.
Kejriwal’s declared income from 2013-14 to 2024-25 in his affidavit dated January 15, 2025, does not align with actual receipts, said Sachdeva.
The affidavit under the scanner of the Delhi BJP was filed by Kejriwal on Wednesday along with his nomination papers from the New Delhi constituency.
Sachdeva said Kejriwal was first elected as an MLA in 2013, a term lasting till November 4, 2014. Since February 2015, he has served continuously as an MLA. In his income tax returns for 2013-14, Kejriwal declared his MLA salary as his primary source of income.
Interestingly, for the 2013-14 fiscal year, he would have received only two months of Chief Minister salary and allowances, followed by regular MLA salary and allowances from March 2014 to November 4, 2014.
When reelected in February 2015, Kejriwal began receiving the Chief Minister’s salary and allowances until September 17, 2024, when he resigned. Subsequently, he would have been drawing his MLA salary till now.
Sachdeva highlighted that before the February 2023 pay hike, Delhi’s Chief Minister received Rs 72,000 per month, which rose to Rs 1,70,000 per month after the hike.
When Kejriwal served as a regular MLA for seven months in 2014-15, he earned a salary and allowances of Rs 55,000 per month. Post-September 17, 2015, his MLA salary was Rs 90,000 per month.
To prove the alleged mismatch in Kejriwal’s income data, the Delhi BJP president said the AAP leader’s declared income for 2014-15 was Rs 7,42,884, despite being an MLA for only nine months that year.
In 2015-16, when his salary, including allowances, was Rs 72,000 per month, he declared an annual income of only Rs 2,46,946. Similar figures were reported in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19, he said.
In 2019-20, his income suddenly dropped to Rs 1,57,823, which is significantly below the taxable basic salary of Rs 3,60,000 annually as Chief Minister, he said.
Kejriwal’s 2020-21 income raises the most significant questions. He declared a 40-fold increase, amounting to Rs 44,90,040, during a time when incomes plummeted globally due to COVID-19, he said.
Sachdeva said Kejriwal’s new liquor policy was drafted during 2020-21 and the unaccounted expenses for constructing the “Sheesh Mahal” were also done during this period.
He said that the next fiscal year, 2021-22, saw Kejriwal’s income drop by 40 times to Rs 1,62,976, and in 2022-23, despite the CM salary hike, his income remained almost stagnant at Rs 1,67,066. In 2023-24, his income rose six-fold to Rs 7,21,530.
Sachdeva said that Delhiites were demanding clarification from Kejriwal about his income growth anomalies in 2020-21 (40-fold) and 2023-24 (6-fold), especially since he claims his MLA salary as his only source of income.
