It is no secret that majority of candidates in the fray this time are crorepathies. But several of them, who are trying their electoral luck in the first phase of polling, have not furnished their Permanent Account Number (PAN) while declaring their assets in the affidavit filed along with the nomination papers.

As per section 139(A) of the Income Tax Act, any person who is carrying on any business or profession whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts are or is likely to exceed Rs 5 lakh in any previous year, must possess a PAN. Permanent Account Number is a number by which the Assessing Officer identifies any person.

However, Election Commission officials said it is not mandatory for candidates to furnish PAN numbers in the affidavit.

According to a study done by Karnataka Election Watch Committee (2008), nearly 250 candidates including former CM H D Kumaraswamy, former ministers H D Revanna, C Chaluvarayaswamy, have not furnished PAN.

Interestingly, many of them are contesting in 28 constituencies of Bangalore.

Prominent leaders

Prominent among Congress candidates are:  K J George (Sarvagnagar), N A Haris (Shantinagar), R V Devaraj (Chickpet), B Chandrappa (Yalahanka), V Somanna (Govindrajnagar), A Somashekar (Yeshwanthpura), M K Somashekar (Krishnaraja).

The BJP:  Shobha Karandlaje (Yeshwanthpura), R Ravindra (Govindrajnagar), Ravi Subramanya (Basavanagudi), A Narayanaswamy (Anekal), B P Manjunath (Narasimharaja).

The JD(S):  H D Kumaraswamy (Ramanagara), H D Revanna (Holenarasipura), N Chaluvarayaswamy (Nagamangala), H C Balakrishna (Magadi), C Narayanaswamy (Byatarayanapura), A T Ramaswamy (Arkalgud), A C Arun Machiah (Virajpet).