Rich aspirants won 2014 LS poll, says Varun Gandhi

Pune: BJP leader Varun Gandhi at a programme in Pune said, “In the last Lok Sabha elections, 84 per cent of the candidates who were the richest in their respective constituencies won the election while 100 per cent of the candidates who were the poorest lost.”

He was speaking at the release of his book, A Rural Manifesto: Realising India’s future through her villages at Symbiosis International University in Pune. While replying to a question from a student from Uttar Pradesh, he started with, “My condolences are with you”, leaving the audience in peals of laughter. “80 per cent of serving IAS officers are from the top 20 cities and most of them have studied in private schools or convents. Inequality starts very early,” he said.

“Latur was provided water via train two years ago while Mumbai buildings have swimming pools. Pune, Thane and Mumbai consume 80 per cent of the water consumed in the state. In Ahmednagar, I found that farmers having more than 50 acres of land consumed 30 times more water than farmers having lesser land.”

Mr Gandhi also pointed out that non-performing assets at banks were because of industries and not farmers. “We need to find out solutions to problems. We at Uttar Pradesh found out solutions for over 400 farmers and each solution was different. To solve the problems on such a large scale, we need to create policies,” he said.

The leader  also said that funding for research and development needed to be increased.