An overwhelming majority of candidates fielded by the ruling and Opposition parties from Maharashtra are ‘crorepatis,’ their affidavits show.
The affidavits submitted by the candidates reveal the movable and immovable assets, including that of their spouses.
The NCP leader and the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise, Praful Patel, is the richest of all candidates with a wealth of Rs. 217.91 crors. Mr. Patel is followed by Manish Jain, also an NCP candidate from Raver constituency who has declared wealth (including those of spouse and two children) of Rs. 151.51 crore. The third among the richest is NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter and party MP Supriya Sule with a declared wealth of Rs.113.90 crore.
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Late Pramod Mahajan’s daughter and BJP candidate from the Mumbai North-Central constituency, Poonam Mahajan, and another NCP candidate from Satara, Udayanraje Bhosle, have both declared wealth of Rs. 108 crore.
Mahin Sheikh, an Independent candidate from Mumbai North-East is the poorest candidate in the State, with a declared wealth of Rs. 2 lakh.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Medha Patkar is also one of the poorest candidates, with a declared wealth of Rs. 2.09 lakh. In sharp contrast, AAP’s Meera Sanyal, who is contesting election from South Mumbai, has declared wealth of Rs. 55 crore.
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Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Dindori constituency, Hemant Waghere with Rs. 8.30 lakh is another ‘poor’ candidate.
“The elections have gone out of the reach of the poor and middle-class citizens. Even the parties give ticket only to wealthy candidates. It is high time the voters realised this and voted for people who work,” said Rajkumar Sharma, co-ordinator, AGNI, which is working for voter awareness.