Richest candidate is worth Rs 603 crore

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati may accuse the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being political outfits “of the rich, and for the rich”, but a look at her party’s Lok Sabha candidates from Delhi shows that BSP candidates are multi-millionaires themselves.

Deepak Bhardwaj, the party’s candidate from West Delhi constituency, is so far the richest candidate in the election fray in the country, with assets valued at a staggering Rs603 crore. Bhardwaj, contesting for the first time, filed his nomination on Thursday.

The 58-year-old tycoon, who arrived at the Rampura election office in West Delhi in a tractor, declared assets worth Rs603 crore. He owns several businesses in the real estate, hotel and education sectors, and runs a school in West Delhi’s Dwarka, the Shiksha Bharti Public School; he says he plans to open two more schools in the constituency.

Bhardwaj also owns a township project called Deepganga in Hardwar, and a hotel called Nitesh Kunj Hotel Complex on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. He beats Khimji Patadia, a Mumbai-based businessman, who is contesting as an independent candidate from Gujarat’s Surendranagar. Patadia had declared assets worth Rs514 crore.

Other super-rich candidates in the fray are L Rajagopal of the Congress, from Vijaywada (Rs299 crore); BSP’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar from South Delhi (Rs155 crore), and Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi from Mumbai Northwest (Rs122 crore).

Tanwar shot to fame during the Delhi assembly elections in November, when he became the richest candidate in the city, with assets worth Rs150 crore. Since November, while the economic downturn has punched a hole in the accounts of the wealthiest people, Tanwar’s assets have increased by a whopping Rs5.27 crore. According to the affidavit filed by him, his assets are now worth Rs155.27 crore. When asked what he attributes the rise in his net worth to, Tanwar said, “I don’t keep track of my wealth.”

Tanwar, who also runs a charitable dispensary, owns a bevy of luxury vehicles, including three Mercedes Benz cars, a Honda Accord, a Scorpio and a Tata Safari, besides a tractor. Their estimated collective value is Rs1.40 crore.

While most Congress and BJP candidates from Delhi’s seven constituencies are millionaires, they pale in comparison to BSP opponents in terms of wealth.
Union minister and Congress candidate from Chandni Chowk, Kapil Sibal’s assets stand at Rs23.91 crore. Vijay Goel, BJP candidate from New Delhi, has shown total assets worth Rs2.09 crore, while Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP candidate from South Delhi, has assets worth Rs2.73 crore. Bidhuri also has a criminal case of defamation pending against him.

The only other candidate from Delhi’s constituencies with a criminal background, Mohammed Yunus, also comes from the BSP. Yunus’s Yunus’s affidavit shows at least three cases of pending heinous crimes, including charges under sections 376 (rape), 392 (robbery) and  147 (rioting). Bhardwaj, too, has cases under sections of cheating and criminal conspiracy of the IPC pending against him.