By Sharat Pradhan,

Lucknow, March 21 (IANS) A whopping Rs.275.5 million. That is the difference between assets declared by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav before the returning officer and the figure submitted in the Supreme Court.

The declaration made by him before the Etawah returning officer Tuesday ahead of the assembly polls from April 7 to May 8 has become questionable as a number of properties listed in a public interest litigation (PIL) before the apex court are missing in it.

Vishwa Mohan Chaturvedi, who moved the PIL before the apex court seeking a probe into his disproportionate assets, says: "This declaration is absolutely false."

"The affidavit sworn by him before the Supreme Court barely two months back clearly admits assets of the order of Rs.308 million - in sharp contrast to Tuesday's declaration of assets worth only about Rs.32.5 million."

"In fact, as per authenticated documents attached by me before the apex court, properties and assets owned by Mulayam's family are of the order of more than a billion rupees."

While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been asked to probe his assets following the PIL, Mulayam Singh in his latest declaration has sought to impress upon the electorate in his hometown Etawah that he does not even own a car.

If the asset returns filed by him before the returning officer are to be believed, then the only car owned by his family is a Toyota purchased in the name of his second wife, Sadhana, against a bank loan.

There is no mention about the high-speed vehicles openly used by his dependent younger son (from the second marriage), Pratik, who keeps changing these luxury cars.

Besides the lone house owned by him in Etawah, the ownership of two houses in Lucknow is also shown in the name of his wife Sadhana and younger son Pratik.

This is again in sharp contrast to the number of other properties owned in the name of different family members in Lucknow, as brought forth before the apex court.

Another huge family-owned building on Lucknow's posh Mahatma Gandhi Marg, opposite the governor's house, which is currently hired by the ABM Amro Bank, has not been revealed in the declaration.

Similarly two huge plots on Lucknow's prime Vikramaditya Marg also do not find mention in his latest declaration.

Only a modest 14.5 acre agricultural land has been shown under his ownership in his native village Saifai.

The chief minister has declared bank deposits worth about Rs.3.5 million in his own account and about Rs.1.5 million in his wife's name.

Properties held in the name of elder son Akhilesh Yadav have not been revealed.

A bureaucrat close to Mulayam Singh, however, said: "Akhilesh is an independent tax payer and an MP, so how could properties owned by him be mentioned under the assets owned by the chief minister?"