 "Seriously rich: Our crorepati netas have more wealth than many corporate candidates")
Lok Sabha candidates withcorporate background, such as Nandan Nilekani and MeeraSanyal, may rank much above their political rivals on wealthcharts, but many others from India Inc who are contestingpolls lag behind ’netas’ in accumulating assets.
Nilekani, former chief of Infosys, figures among therichest in fray for 16th Lok Sabha elections with declarationof Rs 7,700 crore assets along with his wife, while ex-bankerMeera Sanyal also stands taller than her constituency rivalsin terms of declared assets of Rs 50 crore.
Similar is the case with Naveen Jindal, Chairman of JindalPower and V Balakrishnan, former director at Infosys, who arewealthier than their respective rival candidates.However, hotelier Farhan Azmi, Shyama Charan Gupta, whoowns bidi business, and Ashfaq Ahmed Madaki, a youngentrepreneurial face of AAP, have lesser assets compared tothe persons fielded against them, shows an analysis of assetsdeclared in the nomination affidavits of various candidates.
Interestingly, a significant number of candidates withcorporate background have been fielded by Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), which is fighting its debut Lok Sabha polls after thestupendous success in Delhi assembly elections late last year. Azmi, who is contesting from the high-profile MumbaiNorth-Central parliamentary constituency on Samajwadi Partyticket, own assets to the tune of Rs 65 crore.However, Poonam Mahajan (BJP candidate), daughter of latePramod Mahajan, who is also fighting for the same constituencyhas higher networth than Azmi, while sitting MP Priya Dutt isjust Rs one crore short of the hotelier’s wealth.
Mahajan has wealth to the tune of Rs 108 crore, whileDutt, who is contesting on Congress ticket, has assets valuedat Rs 64 crore.Shyama Charan Gupta, who is fighting against Congress’Nand Gopal Gupta and AAP’s Adarsh Shastri for Allahabad seat, has Rs 40.45 crore.The net worth of BJP’s Shyama Charan Gupta, however, islesser than rival contestant Nand Gopal Gupta who has fortuneof Rs 95 crore.
Madaki, who will fight from Chikkodi (Karnataka), hasassets worth Rs 2.35 lakh. His rival contestant Prakash BHukkeri has fortune valued at Rs 1.77 crore, Ramesh V Kattihas a net worth of Rs 2.83 crore.Nilekani, who co-founded IT firm Infosys with NarayanaMurthy and left it to head the Unique Identification Authorityof India (UIDAI), is the wealthiest candidate so far in theentire election arena. He and his wife have assets worth Rs7,700 crore.
Nilekani is the Congress nominee from Bangalore South LokSabha seat in Karnataka. The other two contestants, Ananth Kumar (BJP candidate), has assets worth Rs 1.22 crore, whileAAP’s nominee Nina P Nayak’s wealth is valued at Rs 3.5 crore. Banker-turned-politician Sanyal, who is trying her luckon a AAP ticket from Mumbai South, has wealth worth over Rs 50 crore. The other two contestants – Milind Deora (Congress)and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena) from the same seat have wealthvalued Rs 43 crore and Rs 1.1 crore, respectively.
Balakrishnan, who left Infosys last year, is contesting onan AAP ticket from Bangalore Central. He has assets valued atRs 190 crore.Bangalore Central constituency sitting MP P C Mohan (BJP)has assets valued at Rs 30.46 crore while another contestant,Rizwan Arshad (Congress), has a net worth of Rs 3.2 crore.Jindal, who is a sitting Member of Parliament fromHaryana’s Kurukshetra, has movable and immovable assets worthnearly Rs 300 crore. Jindal is once again contesting onCongress ticket.
Rajkumar Saini (BJP) and Balwinder Kaur (AAP) – also infray for Kurukshetra constituency – have assets worth Rs 13.28 crore and Rs 1.78 crore, respectively.Anil Sharma, Chairman cum Managing Director of theAmrapali Group of Companies, is fighting Lok Sabha electionson a JD(U) ticket from Jehanabad (Bihar). His assets arepegged at Rs 815 crore. Affidavits of candidates from otherparties could not be assessed and therefore cannot becompared.
Lok Sabha elections, which begun on April 7, wouldcontinue till May 12. The fate of these candidates would beannounced on May 16.
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