New Delhi: The richest candidate in India’s Lok Sabha elections — Ramesh Kumar Sharma, an Independent from the Patliputra seat in Bihar who declared over Rs11.07 billion (Dh585 million) — lost his deposit as he could manage only 1,558 votes.
Of the five richest candidates — all from the Congress but for Sharma — three won the elections.
Sharma could garner only 0.14 per cent of the total votes, fourth from below among the 26 candidates in the fray for the Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat.
Ram Kripal Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the seat with over 500,000 (47.28 per cent) votes. Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Misha Bharti, daughter of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, came second with 470,000 (43.63 per cent) votes.
The second richest candidate in 2019 elections was Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Congress) with Rs8.95 billion in assets.
He put up a tough fight in the Chevella constituency, Telangana, but lost to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate G. Ranjith Reddy by 14,317 votes.
The third richest in this Lok Sabha race was Nakul Nath, son of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, with assets worth Rs6.6 billion. A Congress candidate from the Chhindwara constituency of Madhya Pradesh, he won the seat by over 35,000 votes.
The fourth richest, also from the Congress, was Vasanthakumar H with over Rs4.17 billion assets. He won the Kanyakumari seat in Tamil Nadu with about 300,000 votes.
Fifth richest candidate, Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress, declared assets worth over Rs3.74 billion. He lost the election with a margin of over 100,000 votes from the Guna parliamentary seat in Madhya Pradesh to Krishna Pal Singh of the BJP.
