Out of 70 seats, the AAP had won 67 of 70 seats in 2015 and retained 62 in 2020. With the BJP gaining momentum and the Congress attempting a resurgence, the battle for Delhi promises to be one of the most intense in many years.

Candidates in fray

A total of 699 candidates are trying their luck in the elections and out of them, 278 are from national parties, 29 are from state parties, 254 are from registered unrecognised parties and 138 candidates are contesting independently, data anaylsed from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Delhi Election Watch found.

Money matters
1. Billionaire candidates:

The data analysed found that out of the 699 candidates, just 1% or 5 candidates are billionaires.

2. Party-wise billionaires:

Among these five, 3 out of 68 candidates analysed from BJP, 1 out of 70 candidates analysed from Congress and 1 out of 70 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 100 crore, the ADR report said.

So who are the billionaires in fray?

1. Karnail Singh of BJP, contesting from Shakur Basti has assets over Rs 259 crore

2. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, again from BJP, contesting from the Rajouri Garden has assets worth Rs 248 crore.

3. Gurcharan Singh, contesting from Krishna Nagar for the Congress has assets worth Rs 130 crore.

4. Parvesh Sahib Singh of BJP, contesting from New Delhi has assets worth Rs 115 crore.

5. A Dhanwati Chandela of AAP, contesting from Rajouri Garden has assets worth Rs 109 crore.

The total assets of all 699 candidates are at Rs 3,952 crores. Out of these, 23 candidates have assets worth Rs 50 crores and above, including the 5 billionaires.

In 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections, out of 672 candidates, 13(2%) had assets valued Rs. 50 crores and above.

Among these, Parvesh Sahib Singh is contesting against former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.