211 'crorepatis' in fray for first phase of Gujarat polls
at 79, BJP has highest number of such can
Ahmedabad(PTI): Of the 788 candidates contesting 89 seats in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly polls, 211 are 'crorepatis', with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accounting for 79 such nominees, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report on Thursday.
With this, 27 per cent of the total number of candidates in the fray have assets worth more than Rs one crore.
The BJP, which is contesting all 89 seats, have 79 candidates or 89 per cent of its nominees with assets above Rs one crore, followed by the opposition Congress with 65 candidates at 73 per cent and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with 33 candidates at 38 per cent. The AAP is fighting 88 seats.
While the average assets per candidate contesting in the first phase of the election is Rs 2.88 crore, Ramesh Tilala, who is contesting from the Rajkot South Assembly constituency as a BJP candidate is the richest one with the total declared assets of Rs 175 crore, the ADR report said.
Indranil Rajguru, a Congress candidate from the Rajkot East seat, follows Tilala with Rs 162 crore assets. Jawahar Chavda, a BJP candidate from Manavadar seat, has assets worth Rs 130 crore, it said.
An independent candidate named Bhupendra Patoliya from Rajkot West Assembly seat has declared zero assets in his affidavit, the report stated.
Among the 211 candidates, Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja who is contesting from Jamnagar North seat as a BJP candidate, has declared the combined income of Rs 18 crore for 2021-22 for herself, her spouse and dependent. Her own income stood at Rs 6 lakh, her affidavit showed. She has declared assets worth Rs 97 crore, it said.
Of the total candidates in fray, 73 have declared assets worth above Rs 5 crore, 77 others between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore, 125 candidates between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, 170 between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, and 343 with less than Rs 10 lakh, the ADR said in the report.
Party-wise, average assets is Rs 13.40 crore for the BJP, Rs 8.38 crore for the Congress, and Rs 1.99 crore for the AAP.
The 14 candidates of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have declared average assets worth Rs 23.39 lakh.
In the first phase of elections in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, a total of 198 or 21 per cent of 923 candidates were "crorepatis", the report said.
Among the candidates with lowest assets is Rakesh Gamit, a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Vyara which is a Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seat. He has declared assets worth Rs 1,000, while Jayaben Boricha from Bhavnagar West has declared assets worth Rs 3,000, and Samir Shaikh from Surat East Rs 6,500 assets, it said.
Rajguru, who has the second highest assets, is also the one with the highest liabilities at Rs 76 crore, followed by one Bachubhai Artheriiya with Rs 97 crore assets and Rs 30 crore liabilities.
BJP's Pabubha Manek from Dwarka seat generated the second highest income in 2021-22 at over Rs 5 crore through his shipping business, etc. Next comes BJP's Kanu Desai, who is contesting from Pardi, with an income of over Rs 2 crore.
"Around 65 per cent candidates fall in the category of assets worth Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. As compared to last year, the number of crorepati candidates also keep increasing...What is worth noting is that there is no crorepati candidate in BTP, unlike last time when it had 67 per cent crorepati candidates," said ADR's head Anil Verma.
As far as the education details of the candidates are concerned, there are 492, or 62 per cent candidates, who have studied between Class 5 and 12, while 185 are graduates and above, and 21 are diploma holders. As many as 57 candidates are literate, while 37 others are illiterate.
"Compared to other states, the number of illiterates is very high in Gujarat," Verma said.
As many as 277 or 35 per cent candidates are in the 25 to 40 age group, while 431 or 55 per cent are aged between 41 and 60 years. Another 79 candidates are in the age group of 61 to 80 and one is above 80 years of age, the ADR report stated.
There are 719 men and 69 women candidates contesting in the first phase of election, it said.
Elections for 182 seats of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly will be held in two phases - on December 1 for 89 seats and December 5 for 93 seats, while the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
