More than 300 candidates are reported to be millionaires.
Richest Candidates Phase 3:The first and the second phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections are over, being held on April 19 and April 26 respectively. Now, preparations are in full swing for the third phase of voting which will take place on May 7 across 94 Lok Sabha constituencies in a total of 12 states and union territories (UTs).
The third phase will witness many “rich” candidates in the fray. More than 300 candidates are reported to be millionaires while a few have wealth worth a billion rupees or more.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has released a report that names these candidates along with their total assets, parties, and constituencies among other factors. The ADR conducted this study along with National Election Watch in which they examined the self-sworn affidavits of 1351 candidates.
The ADR report features names like Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo of the BJP, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia of the BJP, and Supriya Sule of NCP (SP).
Here, we have compiled a list of the richest candidates for the third phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
The list is led by Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo of the BJP who is contesting from the South Goa constituency. Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo is the wealthiest candidate with assets worth Rs 1361 crore.
In second place is Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia of the BJP who is contesting from the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh. Jyotiraditya Scindia has total assets worth over Rs 424 crore.
In third place is Chhatrapati Shahu Shahji of Congress who is contesting from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur constituency. Chhatrapati Shahu Shahji has assets of more than Rs 342 crore.
Party wise candidates
Among the major regional and national parties, Nitish Kumar’s Bihar-based JD(U) has 3 candidates, Maharashtra-based Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has 5 candidates, Maharashtra-based NCP has 3 candidates, Tejashwi Yadav’s Bihar-based RJD has 3 candidates, and Maharashtra-based Shiv Sena has 2 candidates.
The BJP stands out as the largest party with 82 wealthy candidates.
Congress has 68 candidates.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has 10 candidates.
Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has 6 candidates who have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
The BJP leads in the number of crorepati candidates with 77 out of 82 contenders (94%) declaring assets exceeding Rs 1 crore. The average asset per candidate in Phase 3 stands at Rs 5.66 crores. Notably, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar candidates have the highest average assets of Rs 89.68 crores per candidate, followed by NCP candidates with Rs 62.64 crores, reports Financial Express.
