Ahmedabad: All the BJP and Congress candidates, except five, who are in the fray for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, are ‘crorepatis’, according to the affidavits submitted by them with their nomination papers. Four of the five candidates, whose total assets are less than one crore rupees, belong to the tribal community.
Some of the richest candidates from these two major parties include Congress’ Mehsana nominee, Ambalal Patel, who has declared assets worth Rs 69.9 crore. Chandrakant Patel who is the BJP’s candidate and sitting sitting MP from Navsari has declared assets worth Rs 44.6 crore. Next in line is Poonam Madam, the BJP MP from Jamnagar, who is seeking to retain her seat. She has declared assets worth Rs 42.7 crore.
Among others BJP’s Shardaben Patel has assets worth 44 crore while Ramesh Dhaduk, the BJP candidate who replaced sitting MP Vitthal Radadiya on the Porbandar seat, has 35.75 crore.
Three candidates of the Congress and two BJP nominees have declared assets less than Rs one crore. They are Mansukh Vasava (BJP, Rs 68.35 lakh), Sherkhan Pathan (Congress, Rs 33.4 lakh), Naresh Maheshwari (Congress, Rs 38.13 lakh), Gitaben Rathva (BJP, Rs 86.3 lakh) and Jitu Chaudhary (Congress, Rs 66.1 lakh).
It should be mentioned here that total assets include both movable and immovable assets belonging to the candidates, their spouses, and dependents, as declared in the affidavits submitted along with the nomination papers to the returning officer.
A total of 573 candidates are in the fray for the 26 Lok Sabha seats, where elections will be conducted April 23. Both the major parties – the Congress as well as the BJP have fielded candidates from all the 26 constituencies.
PTI