Naveen Jindal, who is the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited had won the Kurukshetra seat in 2009, on a Congress ticket. He lost the seat in 2014 and did not contest in 2019. Sushil Gupta is a former AAP Rajya Sabha MP.
With assets amounting to ₹1241 Crore Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal is the richest candidate in the fray in Phase 6 of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 today, May 25. Jindal, who defected from the Congress party in March this year, is the BJP a candidate from Kurukshetra seat in Haryana.
The sixth phase is being held today with voters in 58 Lok Sabha seats, including all 10 constituencies in Haryana and seven in Delhi, casting their ballot.
Naveen Jindal is the richest
Jindal, who is the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), had won the Kurukshetra seat in 2009, on a Congress ticket. He lost the seat in 2014 and did not contest in 2019. Nayab Singh Saini of the BJP, currently chief minister of Haryana, won the seat in 2019.
Billionaire Jindal is up against Indian National Lok Dal's (INLD) Abhay Chautala and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Sushil Gupta. The AAP is contesting the Kurukshetra in accordance with seat-sharing deal with the Congress party in the INDIA bloc. The Congress has fielded candidates on the remaining nine seats of Haryana.
Sushil Gupta among top 3 wealthiest
AAP's Gupta owns assets worth ₹169 Crore and is the third richest candidate in the fray in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections, according to the analysis of affidavits by election watchdog, Association for Democratic Rights (ADR).
Gupta is a former AAP Rajya Sabha member of parliament (MP) from and had unsuccessfully contested for the 2013 Delhi assembly election from the Moti Nagar seat on the Congress ticket. Gupta is a known educationist and businessman. His institutions serve 15,000 students across Delhi and Haryana. He also owns Maharaja Agrasen Hospitals and medical colleges in the Delhi-NCR.
With assets worth ₹482 Crore, Santrupt Misra, the Biju Janata Dal candidate from Cuttack, Odisha is the second richest candidate in the fray in sixth phase. Misra, the 59-year-old group director of human resources in the Aditya Birla group, quit his high-profile job in February to join the BJD.
39% Crorepatis in Phase 6
Out of the 866 candidates in Phase 6 analysed by ADR 338 (39%) are Crorepatis. Among the major parties 6 out of 6 candidates of the BJD, 4 out of 4 candidates of the RJD, 4 out of 4 candidates of the JD(U), 48 out of 51 candidates of the BJP, 11 out of 12 candidates of the Samajwadi Party have declared assets more than ₹1 crore.
Similarly, 20 out of 25 candidates of the Congress, 4 out of 5 candidates of theAAP and 7 candidates out of 9 candidates analysed from TMC have declared assets worth more than ₹1 crore. The average assets per candidate contesting in the Lok Sabha phase 6 election is ₹6.21 crores.