With Sensex zooming, these LS candidates have made huge gains on stock investments

New Delhi: The outcome of their performance will only be known on May 16 but scores of 16th Lok Sabhaaspirants are already winners as they are sitting on heftyreturns courtesy their investments in blue-chip stocks withIndian stock market surging to a new high.

The Indian stock markets are on a roll with the benchmarkSensex within sniffing distance of 23,000 mark as investors,including foreign institutions, have bet big on a stablegovernment coming to power when poll results are announced.Shares of blue-chip firms like Reliance Industries,Reliance Power and TCS appear to be favourite among the richand the powerful.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s daughter and Baramati sittingMP Supriya Sule has stock portfolio worth Rs 5.6 crore that isspread across over 80 companies including United Breweries,Adani Enterprises, Coal India, Britannia, DLF, HindustanUnilever, Kingfisher Airlines and Ranbaxy. Her husband,Sadanand has holdings in shares of nearly 100 firms.

Film actor and BJP’s Ahmedabad East candidate Paresh Rawalhas Rs 1.37 crore in listed stocks. He has Reliance Industriesshares worth Rs 45 lakh, Tata Steel scrips worth Rs 20 lakhbesides small holdings in TCS, among others.Rawal’s wife, Swaroop, has a Rs 43 lakh portfolio with thebiggest holding being of Mahindra & Mahindra shares.

Part of Congress youth brigade, Milind Deora’s wifePoonam, holds shares in nine listed companies, includingDishman Pharma, Mukta Arts, NIIT, Oberoi Realty and AdlabsFilms.

While Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, a StanfordMBA, does not directly hold shares in any listed firm, hisaffidavit mentions that his daughter Ananya Raje holds stocksin several firms like CESC, CMC, Greaves Cotton, Hikal, JBChemicals, RPG Lifesciences, Sintex and Zensar Tech. Her totallisted stock portfolio is worth over Rs 8 lakh.

Mumbai North Central BJP candidate Poonam Mahajan’shusband Vajendla has modest holdings in Reliance Industries,Indiabulls Power, Kingfisher Airlines, TCS, Reliance Power andIdea Cellular, among others. Poonam mostly holds shares inunlisted entities.

The past three months have seen shares like RIL (up 22 percent), M&M (23 pc), NIIT (28 pc) and CESC (14 pc) log steadyreturns. RPG Lifesciences has shot up by over 50 per cent.Indiabulls Power, Edelweiss, Reliance Power, HDFC Bank and GMRInfra have risen in 10-30 per cent range.Another Mumbaikar, Gurudas Kamat, who is eyeing a LokSabha seat from Mumbai North-West, and his spouse have share
holdings in Edelweiss Financial Services, Facor Alloys,Religare Enterprises and Rishi Laser.

Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar, fighting on MNS ticket, holdsshares in a host of firms, including RIL, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid Corporation and GMR Infra.Similarly, BJP candidate from Mumbai North-East, KiritSomaiya, has shares in small-cap stocks like GE Shipping,
Precision Electronics, Pipavav Defence, Network 18 Media andSanghvi Forging.

Former Infosys Board Member and Aam Aadmi Party candidatefor Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat V Balakrishnan’s Rs 190crore total assets have a major share-holding component. AboutRs 103 crore is from his equity shares in Infosys and about Rs5.26 crore in American Depository Receipts of Infosys Limited.Likewise, Infosys co-founder and Congress candidate fromBangalore South, Nandan Nilekani and his wife RohiniNilekani’s fortune worth Rs 7,700 crore is almost 80 per centfrom Infosys shares.

TDP’s Guntur nominee and MD of Rs 3,500-crore Amara RajaBatteries Jayadev “Jay” Galla is one of the promoters of thelead acid batteries maker. He holds 1.28 crore scrips in thecompany, besides holding some interest in shares of AndhraBank, LKP Finance and Padmalaya Telefilms.

PTI