Annu Tandon

Annu Tandon ^[1] is an Indian politician. She was an MP in the 15th Lok Sabha from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh with the Indian National Congress party.

Tandon is the founder director of the Hriday Narain Dhawan Charitable Trust, which has been active in philanthropy in the district since before 2000.^[2] The charity, funded mostly through family funds, has worked in education, and gathered attention for innovative projects like helping children of illiterate parents with their homework.^[3] The charity also works with weaker groups like widows and the handicapped. She was also associated with Rehabilitation wing of the Congress party.

She was earlier managing MoTech Software Pvt. Ltd, a firm launched by Mukesh Ambani, and also ran Salonica Vasans, a textile export firm.

She has a B.Sc. degree from Dayanand Subhash National Post Graduate College, Unnao.

Family

She is the widow to Late Sandeep Tandon, who was a top liaison executive of Reliance Industries Ltd. Before joining Reliance in 1994, he was with the Indian Revenue Service.^[4] As an officer of the Enforcement Directorate, Tandon had investigated foreign front companies floated by Reliance, and also conducted a raid on the house of Tina Ambani.^[5]

The entire family has close connections with Mukesh Ambani, two of their sons also being employees of Reliance.^[6]

She had declared assets of 41 crores (USD 10 mn) in the 2009 election declarations.^[7] She declared assets of 42 crores (USD 10+ mn) in the 2014 election declarations.^[8]

2014 elections

In the Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh, 2014, Annu Tandon was again fielded as a candidate by the Congress. Unnao is India's largest electoral constituency, and in the previous general elections in 2009, Annu Tandon had won the seat for Congress. Annu Tandon lost the 2014 elections from Uanno badly - she was 4th in the election results barely retaining her deposits at 16% votes. After Congress' resounding defeat in 2014 elections, Annu refused to blame Congress leadership for the debacle.^[9]

2009 elections

In the Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh, 2009, Annu Tandon was fielded as a novice political candidate by the Congress. Unnao is India's largest electoral constituency, and in the previous general elections in 2004, Congress had come up fourth here, and the seat had been won by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). During the elections, many prominent personalities including film star Salman Khan campaigned for her.^[10]

Career and Controversies

She has served as a member on the Committee of Water Resources and that on Empowerment of Women in 2009 when she was part of the 15th Lok Sabha. In the year 2007, MoTech then led by her was under scrutiny for insider trading by regulator SEBI.^[11] In 2012, Arvind Kejriwal had alleged Annu Tandon of stashing away black money in Swiss Bank for Relianace with investment banker Praveen Kumar ^[12] - however, Anu Tandon had denied these allegations.^[13]

In February 2015, Annu Tandon's name figured at position 22 (balance $5.7mn) in the list of Indians with accounts in the HSBC Swiss Private bank (Swiss Leaks).^[14]

References