Gujarat Rajya Sabha election: Affidavit filed for 2 seats reveal S Jaishankar most qualified, BJP's Jugalji Thakor richest among all 4 candidates

Ahmedabad: Affidavits filed by four candidates for the Rajya Sabha election from the Gujarat seat have revealed that BJP nominee and external affairs minister S Jaishankar is the most qualified among them. The saffron party’s second candidate Jugalji Thakor is the richest, with a total wealth of over Rs 101 crores. [caption id=“attachment_4283789” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Image courtesy: The Indian Embassy in Washington DC[/caption] Congress candidate Chandrika Chudasama declared that she owns assets worth around Rs 2.56 crores, the lowest among the four nominees. Gaurav Pandya, the other Congress candidate, declared that he owns a revolver and faces charges under sections 144 and 188 of the IPC for disobeying a police order back in 2017. The two parties have fielded two candidates each for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat. All of them filed their nomination papers on Tuesday. According to his affidavit, 64-year-old external affairs minister Jaishankar, his wife and a dependent, own movable and immovable assets of, of Rs 15.82 crores. Jaishankar has got a MA, MPhil, and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Jugalji Thakor, 49, who is the richest candidate among the four, declared his assets which include a Ducati motorbike owned by his son, several tracts of land, and a farmhouse. Thakor, who also goes by the surname Lokhandwala, said in the affidavit that he is a farmer as well as a trader. He passed the 12th standard exam in 1991 and finished his BBA (Bachelor in Business Administration) in 2015 from an open university, the affidavit said. Congress candidate Chandrika Chudasama, 67, is a qualified Ayurveda doctor and hold assets worth Rs 2.56 crores. Second Congress candidate, Gaurav Pandya, 59, is a practicing lawyer and owns assets worth Rs 19.25 crores. Among them is a revolver worth 1.25 lakhs, he declared. He was booked by Pardi police in Valsad district in 2017 for holding protests carrying a “grass effigy of the PM (Narendra Modi)”. However, the High Court stayed the investigation in the case, said his affidavit. The election will be held on 5 July.