New Delhi: Delhi is in the throes of Assembly election and it became a necessity for the media to trumpet the spectacle. Any election in India is arguably the greatest democratic show on the planet. Around 1.3 crore voters speaking different languages, will vote in 11,763 voting centers across the national capital on February 7.
With campaigns on the chart, the conquest of Delhi has become a herculean task for any single party.
Around 673 odd candidates are in the fray for 70 seats as all the political parties have nominated their candidates in Delhi. Â
Studies in the past have shown that politicians with deep pockets have higher chances of winning elections. However, there have been exceptions everywhere.
NewsMobile brings to its readers the list of four poorest and richest candidates contesting the Delhi polls.
The use of money power has gone up in the Delhi polls. Of the 673 contestants battling for 70 assembly seats, 230 are billionaires with the Congress topping the list with 59 candidates, said Delhi Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), analysing the affidavits submitted by the candidates to the election authorities.
BJP is at number two with 50 crorepatis candidates followed by AAP who have fielded 44 crorepatis. Of the 195 Independents, 27 candidates are also crorepatis.
BJP’s ally Shiromani Akali Dal’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, contesting from Rajouri Garden constituency has maintained his Numero Uno position on the rich list. Sirsa’s total accumulated declared assets amount to Rs 239 crore, an increase of Rs 3.8 crore since the last election held in 2013. He has stated his profession as ‘agriculturist’ and is a real estate owner with a passion for luxury cars; he owns a Bentley, a Mercedes SUV and a Land Rover.
The second richest on the list is BJP’s Sat Prakash Rana, contesting from Bijwasan constituency, who has declared total assets worth Rs 78 crore. In 2013 polls, it was Rs 33 crore. His rival and AAP candidate Devendra Sehrawat is also a crorepati with assets totaling Rs 2.2 crore. Sherawat is an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad.
The third richest candidate in the Delhi polls is Devendra Yadav. Congress candidate in Badli is worth Rs 29 crore, up by Rs 3 crore since 2013.
Yadav dethroned Dharm Dev Solanki of BJP who finished third in the last face-off but Solanki is the fourth richest candidate with Rs 27 crore.
However, there are 80 candidates who have declared their assets which are less than Rs one lakh. No Congress, BJP or AAP candidate figures on the list of the three with the least assets.
And then there are those who have declared to own almost nothing.
The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha’s Burari candidate, Sushil Kumar Mishra, has declared zero assets and hence tops the list of poorest candidate in Delhi elections.
The second poorest candidate is Kushma Devi, a 37-year-old, who lives in Nanakpura’s Shri Ram JJ Slum has entered the election fray as an independent candidate by borrowing Rs 100 to buy the form. Kushma Devi doesn’t understand what assets worth Rs 100 crore means. She says she can’t visualize money beyond a few hundred rupees. Kushma works as a domestic help in four houses and earns mere Rs 3,000 per month, Kushma Devi has never seen money beyond few hundred rupees.
The third poorest candidate is Deepak Kumar, an independent candidate from Karol Bagh who faces Congress Madan Khorwal and AAP’s Vishesh Ravi has declared Rs 12,000 asset. Â
Fourth on the poorest candidate list is AAP’s leader Rakhi Birla, who faces Congress heavyweight and former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan from Mangolpuri constituency. The assets of Birla have declined from Rs 51,150 to Rs 18,500 in 2013 assembly polls. Chauhan’s total assets are Rs 9.1 crore which is 4900 percent more than Birla’s wealth.