Election FAQ: Who are the richest candidates?

In light of the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Polls 2019, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) has consolidated a report on the candidates who would feature in the upcoming phase of the election. The report consists of details on the candidates’ criminal background, assets and educational qualifications.

More than 11 per cent of the candidates (109 candidates) contesting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Polls 2019 have assets worth over 5 crores. A further 107 candidates have assets between 2 and 5 crores. In total, there are 311 (32 per cent) candidates who have declared assets worth over a crore rupees. 80 per cent of the BJP candidates and 63 per cent of the Congress candidates have assets worth over one crore rupees. The average assets per candidate for the BJP is 12.70 crores while that for the Congress is 22.37 crores.

AICC General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh West and contestant from the Guna Constituency, Jyotiraditya Scindia is the richest candidate contesting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Polls 2019. He has assets over 374 crores.

Former Indian cricketer and BJP candidate from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir is the second wealthiest candidate from the sixth phase of the elections. He has movable assets worth almost 120 crores and total assets of over 147 crores.

Virender Rana of the Indian National Lok Dal contesting from Gurgaon is third in the list and has assets worth over 102 crores.

Rajib Mahato, a Shiv Sena candidate from Purulia constituency of West Bengal has declared zero assets. Sukhchand Saren and Rangalal Kumar contesting from Bankura and Purulia respectively have declared assets worth less one thousand rupees.

Gautam Gambhir (12 crores+), Meenakshi Lekhi (5 crores+) from the BJP and Deepak Yadav (4 crores+) from the BSP have declared the highest annual income amongst contesting candidates. Gautam Gambhir also has the highest liabilities (34 crores+) amongst the candidates contesting in the sixth phase of the polls.

Phase six has the second highest percentage of crorepati candidates (32 per cent). Phase four recorded 33 per cent of crorepati candidates. 69 of the total number of candidates (7%) have not provided PAN details.

Haryana (39 per cent), Bihar (35 per cent) and NCR (35 per cent) have recorded the highest per cent of crorepati candidates. The average assets declared per candidate in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha Polls is 3.42 crores.

Shruti Choudhry (INC), Dushyant Chautala (Jananayak Janata Party), Maneka Gandhi (BJP) and Deo Vrat Mishra (INC) are some of the other candidates who have assets worth over 50 crores.