At least 100 Lok Sabha aspirants possess pistols, rifles and other firearms as their 'assets', alongside many others in poll arena with 'valuable' items like artwork, health clinic, treadmill, orchard and books.
There are thousands of candidates in fray for a total of 543 Lok Sabha seats and their declared assets also include Arab horses, paintings, sculptures, as also household items like refrigerators, TV sets, mobile phones, tractors and cows.
The list could grow further as the nomination process is still on for the Lok Sabha polls, which began on Tuesday and are spread across nine phases till May 12.
The nomination process typically starts about a month before the polling date and the nomination for the last, ninth phase, would end on April 24. Along with the nomination papers, the candidates need to file an affidavit detailing their total assets and liabilities along with other details.
An analysis of the affidavits filed so far shows that those possessing various firearms -- collectively worth lakhs of rupees -- include leaders from different parties such as the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, BJP, Samajwadi Party, RJD and BSP.
The prominent names from BJP include party President Rajnath Singh, party's Pilibhit candidate Maneka Gandhi, former Army chief V K Singh, who is fighting from Ghaziabad seat in Uttar Pradesh, and ace shooter Rajyawardhan Rathore (Jaipur rural seat).
Other big names who have declared firearms as their assets include Union Minister Srikant Kumar Jena and former Karnataka Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda.
While Rajnath Singh has listed two revolvers, worth Rs 20,000, Gandhi has a rifle valued at Rs 40,000. Both are fighting the polls from Uttar Pradesh. Jena owns a revolver worth over Rs 10,000 whereas Gowda has a Rs 55,000 revolver as one of his possessions.
AAP candidate from Delhi, Devinder Kumar Sehrawat, has mentioned a NSP pistol valued at Rs 2 lakh as an asset in his affidavit.
Others include AAP's Parveen Amanullah, RJD's Sri Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha -- both are contesting from Bihar -- and BJP's Sarvesh Kumar from Uttar Pradesh.
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