Money enjoys huge mandate in Gujarat’s electoral race

AHMEDABAD: That money matters in electoral politics is reflected from the list of wealthy candidates in the

Lok Sabha

fray from both the BJP and Congress, the two principal parties in Gujarat.

A J Patel, the Congress candidate from Mehsana, with Rs 69.9 crore in wealth is the richest candidate in the

Lok Sabha elections

in Gujarat, voting for which will be held in a single phase on April 23. These wealth figures include movable and immovable assets declared by the candidates and their family members in the affidavits filed with the Election Commission of India.

The other four candidates in the top five are all from the BJP. These are C R Paatil (Navsari), who is worth Rs 44.6 crore; Sharda Patel (Mehsana), whose wealth is Rs 44.03 crore; Poonam Maadam (Jamnagar), who has Rs 42.73 crore in wealth and BJP president and Gandhinagar candidate Amit Shah who has declared having wealth worth Rs 38.73 crore.

The average wealth of all BJP candidates in Gujarat is Rs.11.15 crore, while that of the 26 Congress candidates is Rs.8.48 crore.

Of all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, the average wealth of two candidates is the highest in Mehsana, Rs 56.96 crore.

Besides Patel of the Congress, BJP’s Mehsana candidate Sharda Patel has Rs 44.03 crore in wealth. In Jamnagar, the average wealth of the two principal candidates is Rs 35.90 crore. Congress’s Muru Kandoriya is worth Rs 29.08 crore. He will take on BJP’s Poonam Maadam. The candidate with the least wealth is BJP’s Vinod Chavda (Kutch), whose wealth is just Rs 24.94 lakh.

BJP’s Geeta Rathwa (Chhota Udepur), is worth Rs 86.34 lakh. The bottom five has two Congress candidates and three from the BJP. The average wealth of the candidates from Bharuch - Congress’s Sher Khan Pathan, and BJP’s Mansukh Vasava — is Rs 50.89 lakh.

Only three BJP candidates, Mansukh Vasava, Vinod Chavda and Geeta Rathwa have wealth below Rs.1 crore.