Assam Polls: Three members of a billionaire family in fray

Team Udayavani, Mar 30, 2021, 1:11 PM IST

Without giving an iota of attention to the criticism of dynasty politics, a billionaire political family’s three members are in the fray for Assam Assembly elections from different constituencies of Barak valley.

Six consecutive time MLA and former Congress minister Gautam Roy, who has switched side to BJP this time, his son and former MLA Rahul and daughter-in-law newcomer Daisy are contesting from Katigora, Udharbond and Algapur constituency respectively.

All the three constituencies spread across Cachar and Hailakandi districts are going to polls in the second phase on April 1.

According to the affidavits of the three candidates, the total net worth of the Barak valley’s powerful Roy family has been estimated to be at Rs 142.57 crore.

Roy’s wife Mandira also became an MLA after winning the Algapur seat on Congress ticket in the by-election of 2013, while his father Santosh Kumar Roy had represented the Katlichera constituency from 1972-78.

The 72-year-old veteran politician represented the Katlichera seat in every election since 1985 and was a minister in former chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s cabinet, but lost to AIUDF’s Suzam Uddin Laskar in 2016.

Roy joined the BJP in 2019 after Congress suspended him for “anti-party activities”. The saffron party shifted him to Katigora constituency by replacing the sitting MLA Amar Chand Jain and allotted his base Katlichera to Subrata Nath.

When asked about the shifting of the constituency, Roy told PTI, “It is as per the decision of the party and I have no objection in that. I am 100 per cent confident of winning the election this time from Katigora.”

His son Rahul (46) won the Algapur seat in 2006 on a Congress ticket, but lost the same in 2011 and 2016. He resigned from the Congress in 2019 in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Giving the Algapur seat to his wife Daisy (46), Rahul shifted to Udharbond. Both husband and wife are contesting as Independents this time.

Talking about his son and daughter-in-law, Gautam Roy said, “They are matured people. They stay separately and have separate businesses. They independently took the decision to contest the election. I have no say in that.”

Asked if their contesting will hamper the prospect of BJP in both Udharbond and Algapur seats, the father said: “What can I do in that? They don’t have any political link with me. They don’t listen to me. Otherwise, Rahul would not have lost two times earlier.”

When asked if he has blessed his son and daughter-in- law for the upcoming electoral battle, Roy said they have not come to him yet.

In his affidavit, Gautam Roy declared a total asset of Rs 3.11 crore, including Rs 2.86 crore worth of immovable properties. He has a liability of Rs 12.71 lakh.

Considering the Rs 2.59 crore worth of properties of wife Mandira and Rs 40 lakh properties of one dependent Sutanuka, the total value of Roy’s family have been shown as Rs 6.09 crore.

Rahul Roy in his affidavit said that he owns total assets of Rs 136.22 crore, including immovable properties of Rs 130.97 crore. His total liabilities stand at Rs 6.40 crore.

Daisy has been mentioned to posses only movable assets worth Rs 18.04 lakh in her as well as Rahul’s affidavits, but no immovable properties.

Rahul also said in the affidavit that one dependent Satarupa has movable properties worth Rs 7.82 lakh.

Considering all the figures, the total value of the assets owned by Rahul Roy’s immediate family is Rs 136.48 crore.

Altogether 345 candidates are contesting in 39 constituencies going for polls in the second phase. Their fate will be sealed by 73,44,631 electors, including 37,34,537 males, 36,09,959 females and 135 transgenders.

There are 946 candidates in total for election of the 126-member Assam Legislative Assembly, being held in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6.