In a first, the Election Commission has now made it mandatory for contestants to declare their investments abroad. The EC has amended Form 26 in which the contestants used to furnish their income details along with their spouse. The amendment made by the EC recently has included dependents of the contestants as well. Now, the contestant will have to provide income details of dependents too.
According to new provisions, the candidates will have to furnish details of assets and liabilities of members of undivided family besides self, spouse and dependents. Candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections will also have to provide five years of tax returns of all dependents and members of undivided family.
The EC has made it mandatory for candidate to provide all details in a prescribed format along with an affidavit and signature on each page of the form. Till now candidates used to provide details of self and their spouse but investments made on the names of children or other dependents used to go unnoticed. Investments details in foreign countries and banks too were not asked.
