The Association for Democratic Reforms has analysed the affidavits of around 3,300 candidates so far, and tabulated their assets. Here’s a glimpse of the net assets of all candidates. The size of each box represents the assets of the candidates. The colour represents the party they belong to.
Nandan Nilekani’s wealth, at Rs 7,710 cr, is rather striking. His wealth is more than the net assets of the next two hundred candidates. Put another way, his assets are more than those of every other Congress candidate, BJP candidate, independent candidate, BSP candidate, JD(U) candidate and AAP candidate put together.
Since Nandan skews the picture considerably, let’s remove him and look at the rest.
We see several prominent figures emerge. Anil Kumar Sharma of JD(U), who is contesting in Jahanabad, is the second wealthiest with net assets of over Rs 740 cr. Naveen Jindal of Congress, contesting at Kurukshetra, is the third, with net assets of over Rs 300 cr. Malook Nagar of BSP, contesting at Bijnoor, is next with Rs 286 cr.
But let’s look at a typical candidate. The median wealth of a candidate is approximately Rs 27-28 lakhs. Anil Kumar of AAP, contesting at Jaipur Rural is a representative example, with net assets of Rs 28 lakhs. His wealth breaks up as follows.
If we move up a notch and start looking at the least wealthy of the 871 candidates with net assets over Rs 1 crore, Janardan Mishra of BJP contesting at Rewa is first on our list. His assets break up as follows:
The bulk of the wealth is from 39 acres of agricultural land, whose value is estimated at the conveniently round number of Rs 1 crore.
Umed Singh of BSP, contesting at Shahjahanpur UP, has net assets worth Rs 10 crores. Here’s the break-up. As with other candidates, the bulk of the wealth is in property.
Between them, the candidates own around Rs 18,000 crores of assets. These are staggering figures. To put them in perspective, here’s a sense of how much money this is.
1 lakh is fairly small. You can hold a bundle worth Rs 1 lakh easily in your hand if it’s in 1,000 rupee notes. (These dimensions are based on the RBI specs for the Mahatma Gandhi series of notes. A Rs 1,000 note is 177mm x 73mm x 0.11mm). It weighs around 116 grams, and can be easily carried around.
Hopefully, some of this will be used responsibly during the current elections.
AI in Manufacturing: Drastically Boosting Quality Control Imagine the factory floors are active with precision… Read More
Did you know the smart factory market is expected to grow significantly over the next… Read More
Effective inventory management is more crucial than ever in today's fast-paced business environment. It directly… Read More
Gramener - A Straive Company has secured a spot in Analytics India Magazine’s (AIM) Challengers… Read More
Recently, we won the Nasscom AI Gamechangers Award for Responsible AI, especially for our Fish… Read More
Supply chain disruptions can arise from various sources, such as extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions,… Read More
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
Good analysis! There are 18 candidates who have declared close to or more than 100 crores as their assets, apart from NN. Out of this 18, candidates with criminal cases filed on them are 5. Out of the 18, there is one with a Doctoral degree and there are 3 who have studied 8th standard or less! 2 out of 18 are women.