“The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates,” said Major General (retd) Anil Varma, head, ADR while virtually presenting the report.
There has been a jump in the number of “crorepati” candidates contesting the Assembly elections in Gujarat this year. According to a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Thursday, 89 per cent of the candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contesting the Phase-1 of the Gujarat polls this year are crorepatis with an average asset size of Rs 13.4 crore.
And the richest candidate, with Rs 175.78 crore of assets, is Ramesh Tilala, the saffron party’s candidate from the Rajkot South constituency, the ADR report showed.
“The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates,” said Major General (retd) Anil Varma, head, ADR while virtually presenting the report.
In Phase-1 of the polls this year, 27 per cent of the 788 candidates are crorepatis, while in the 2017 elections, this figure was 21 per cent for the first phase. While 79 of the 89 BJP candidates this year are crorepatis, 73 per cent of Congress candidates and 33 per cent of the AAP candidates have declared assets valued more than Rs one crore. If the contesting BJP candidates have an average asset size of Rs 13.4 crore, then Congress candidates are not far behind with average assets of Rs 8.38 crore.
The second richest candidate in Phase 1 of the Gujarat Assembly election 2022 is Indranil Rajguru, a Congress candidate from Rajkot East. Rajguru has declared assets worth Rs 162 crore and also has the highest liability of Rs 76 crore. The third richest with Rs 130 crore assets is Jawahar Chavda, the BJP candidate from the Manavadar seat.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.99 crore, while those of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have average assets worth Rs 23.49 lakh. In comparison, the BSP candidate from the Vyara seat in the Tapi district, Rakesh Gamit, has only Rs 1000 as assets. He is the candidate with the lowest declared assets.
Among candidates with high income declared in the Income Tax Return (ITR) is Rivaba Jadeja, the BJP candidate from Jamnagar North and wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. She has declared assets worth Rs 97 crore.
In Phase-1 of the polls, 62 per cent of the contesting candidates have educational qualifications between classes 5 to 12 while only 23 per cent are graduates and above. As many as 37 candidates are illiterate, according to the ADR report.
Of the total candidates, only 9 per cent are women. While 34 per cent of Independent candidates are women, only 9 per cent of BJP candidates are women. Just 7 per cent of the Congress and AAP candidates are women, the ADR report added.
While Phase-1 of the Gujarat Assembly elections will be held on December 1, the second one will be conducted on December 5. The votes will be counted on December 8.
