Ahmedabad East seat has maximum ‘crorepati’ candidates in Gujarat

Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency has the highest number of ‘crorepati’ candidates in Gujarat, while Congress candidate from Mehsana A J Patel is the richest one, an analysis of election affidavits shows.

A total of 371 candidates are in the fray for 26 seats in Gujarat that will go to polls on April 23. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog, said in a report that six out of 26 candidates from Ahmedabad East have declared that they possess assets worth Rs one crore or more.

It is followed by Gandhinagar, where five out of total 17 candidates are worth Rs one crore or more. There are a total of 75 ‘crorepati’ candidates, around 20 per cent of the total 370 candidates analysed by the ADR.

Among the candidates from Ahmedabad East, BJP’s Somabhai Patel is the richest candidate with Rs 7.46 crore-worth assets, followed by BSP’s Ganesh Vaghela at Rs 7.09 crore. Congress’ Geeta Patel has declared assets of Rs 4 crore.

BJP president Amit Shah, who is contesting from Gandhinagar seat, has declared assets of over Rs 40 crore. His Congress rival C J Chavda has declared assets of over Rs 12 crore. K L Desai, an independent, has declared assets of Rs 18 crore.

But the richest of them all is A J Patel, Congress candidate from Mehsana, who has declared assets of Rs 69 crore. He is followed by Chandrakant Patil, BJP candidate from Navsari (Rs 44 crore), Shardaben Patel, BJP candidate from Mehsana (Rs 44 crore), BJP candidate from Jamnagar Poonamben Maadam (Rs 42 crore) and Amit Shah (Rs 40 crore).

When it comes to liabilities, Ramesh Dhadhuk, BJP candidate from Porbandar, has taken the top spot. He has declared liabilities of Rs 21 crore against the assets of Rs 35 crore, the data shows.

Vedubhai Sirasat Kautikbhai, who is contesting as a candidate of Ambedkarite Party of India from Ahmedabad West seat, has declared the lowest assets of all candidates at Rs 3,300, the analysis shows.