Mayoral polls flooded with crorepati candidates

Bareilly: Almost all major political parties — BJP, Congress, SP, AAP and BSP — have fielded crorepati candidates for mayoral poll in Bareilly.
While BJP’s Umesh Gautam, chancellor of a private university here, is the richest candidate with Rs 14.83 crore of total assets, SP’s IS Tomar is second on the list with assets worth Rs 9.65 crore. AAP’s Navneet Agarwal, a local businessman, holds the third spot with assets amounting to Rs 9.34 crore. Congress candidate Ajay Shukla, who is also a businessman, holds assets totaling Rs 5.70 crore, while BSP’s Mohd Yusuf, an exporter, has assets worth Rs 3.10 crore.
SP’s IS Tomar, a doctor by profession, is eyeing a third term as Bareilly mayor by projecting himself as a ‘development icon’. Tomar became Bareilly mayor in 2000, but could not contest the next election as the seat was reserved for a woman candidate. However, he contested as an independent candidate in 2012 and later joined SP after winning.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Umesh Gautam is a BCom graduate with an honorary PhD degree from the University of Milano. Apart from being the chancellor of Invertis University, he is the chairperson of Mission Hospital. Gautam had earlier contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a BSP ticket, but lost to BJP’s Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
BSP candidate Mohd Yusuf, who is Class X pass out, had fought UP assembly elections in 2012 on a Peace Party ticket. However, he is participating in the mayoral poll for the first time. Like him, Congress’ Ajay Shukla and AAP’s Navneet Agarwal are contesting for the mayor’s post for the first time.
“The other candidates are only focused on making money and the residents of Bareilly are aware about that. The public will respond to their plea for votes while keeping this fact in mind,” Shukla said.
Agarwal, who holds postgraduate degrees from the prestigious IIT-Roorkee and IIM-Calcutta, said, “As I have pursued industrial engineering, my education will come in handy in development-related works in the city. I can share my inputs on many issues, including bridge designing, road network and multi-level parking.”
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