How much are our candidates worth

It's what they call money-talk. Look at the remarkable range of the economic profile of candidates who have filed nominations so far.

While Congress candidate from Bangalore (South) Nandan Nilekani is worth Rs 7,700 crore, AAP candidate from Rohtak, Naveen Jaihind, is at the other end of the spectrum .

Jaihind has declared assets of just around Rs 78,343 to the Election Commission.

Nilekani, one of Infosys's founder-members, may turn out to be the candidate worth the most by the end of the nomination process. Naveen, a social activist, may end up in the bottom of the list.

After filing his nomination papers, Nilekani stated that he and his wife together have assets worth Rs 7,700 crore on account of the success of Infosys, with which they were involved right from its founding in the early 1980s.

Most of the wealth, almost 80%, remains in Infosys shares, with 1.45% of the company's shares owned by Nilekani and 1.3% by his wife.

On the other hand, Naveen, a Phd in physical education, has declared assets worth Rs 78,343, which includes some silver jewellery.

AAP's national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, gave his much-famed Wagon R, in which he travelled as chief minister, to Naveen last week, for his election campaign.

Naveen will face a tough fight from sitting MP Deepender Singh Hooda, son of Haryana chief minister, who is worth around Rs 16 crore.

Preliminary assessment of affidavits by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) suggests that the Congress has fielded more than 85 multi-millionaire candidates, as of now, while the BJP has fielded more than 30 such candidates till now.

As per ADR, some of the richest candidates from Congress include Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra constituency, who has declared assets worth Rs 131.07 crore. Ratna Singh from Pratapgarh constituency has assets worth Rs. 67.82 crore and Kazim Ali Khan (Congress) from Rampur constituency has assets worth Rs. 56.89 crore.

BJP spokesperson, Meenakshi Lekhi – New Delhi
Declared assets of around Rs 35 crore in her and her husband Aman Lekhi's and two sons' name. The assets include bank deposits, commercial and residential properties.

Lekhi has movable assets worth Rs 1.36 crore. Her Husband, Aman Lekhi, has immovable assets worth Rs 5.58 crore. Her two dependent sons, Anirudh and Pranay, own immovable assets worth Rs 7.77 lakh and Rs 6.55 lakh, respectively. Her husband owns immovable assets worth Rs 27.9 crore.

DETAILS:
Cash in hand
Lekhi- Rs 1 lakh
Spouse - Rs, 1.54 lakh
Anirudh and Pranay -- Rs 25,500 and Rs 20,000, respectively

Lekhi owns 1,170 grams of gold. Husband owns 40 kg of gold. Both the sons have around 500 grams of gold.

Her husband owns a Jaguar, BMW, new Beetle and Chevrolet Beat worth Rs 1.5 crore

Former Union Minister , Ajay Maken – New Delhi

Declared assets worth around Rs 6. 11 crore in his and his spouse's name and his two dependent daughters. Assets include bank deposits, motor vehicles, jewellery and farm land.

Maken has movable assets worth Rs 2.76 crore. His wife has movable assets worth Rs 88 lakh. Two children have movable assets worth Rs 34 lakh.

DETAILS:
Cash in hand: Maken Rs 48,000. Wife: Rs 13,800

Vehicle: Maken owns Maruti Vitara and wife Maruti Swift Dzire

Jewellery: Wife has jewellery worth Rs 9.73 lakh

Agricultural land: Owns 1 acre agricultural land in Ghaziabad, with an approximate market value of Rs 1 crore.

Among the candidates announced by the BJP, Shivkumari C Udasi from Haveri constituency has the highest assets worth Rs 32.33 crore.

In 2009, 10 candidates with assets worth less than Rs 5 lakh and 115 candidates with assets worth more than Rs 5 crore had won the Lok Sabha elections.