Filing of nominations comes to a close: Sanjay Tandon is richest, Manish Tewari has four cars, a revolver
Manish Tewari, with assets worth ₹29.68 crore, including that of his spouse, comes a distant second in terms of net worth.
With declared assets to the tune of ₹87.62 crore, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Sanjay Tandon is the richest candidate in fray for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, the polling for which will be held on June 1. The nominations for the seat came to a close on Tuesday. The Election Commission has received 27 nominations, including two covering candidates.
Manish Tewari, with assets worth ₹29.68 crore, including that of his spouse, comes a distant second in terms of net worth.
Who owns what
A second-generation politician and CA, Tandon has also declared assets worth ₹24 crore under the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), taking his total worth to ₹111 crore.
As per their election affidavits, it seems that the Tandon couple is fond of buying properties and jewellery while Tewari has no jewellery but four cars. Tewari’s wife, however, owns gold worth ₹1.11 crore.
The Tandon couple owns ₹1.30 crore worth gold, silver and diamonds. Interestingly, Tandon is often spotted riding around the city in expensive cars but he has no car to his name.
Tandon owns immovable assets worth ₹35.06 crore, including agriculture land worth ₹4.8 crore; residential properties worth ₹13.5 crore in Chandigarh’s Sector 18-D and Mohali’s Phase 8; non-agriculture land worth ₹12.50 crore in Mohali’s Phase 7; and shares worth ₹1.12 crore in commercial buildings in Chandigarh’s Sector 17.
On the other hand, Tewari, a lawyer by profession and a former information and broadcasting minister, owns agricultural land valued at ₹12 lakh in Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, and residential properties worth ₹20.87 crore in Chandigarh’s Sector 4, Mullanpur, Safdarjung New Delhi, and Andheri in Mumbai.
Tewari’s assets have grown by ₹14.22 cr since last election
As per the election affidavit, Tewari’s movable and immovable assets have grown by ₹14.22 crore since 2019 when he contested and won from Anandpur Sahib. During the previous elections, he had declared income to the tune of ₹15.46 crore.
The list of movable assets owned by Tewari include four cars -- two Honda city cars, a Honda Accord and a Maruti S Cross Sigma. He also owns a revolver .32 Erma inherited from his mother valued at ₹1.5 lakhs.
While Tewari has seven bank accounts with deposits totalling ₹6.8 lakh, he has invested in 17 fixed deposits in various banks totalling ₹1.8 crore. His spouse has deposits and investments worth ₹1.01 crore, including a Public Provident Fund account.
While declaring liabilities, Tewari has mentioned an amount of ₹2,30,540 which is a demand raised by the Income Tax department, the rectification application of which is pending.
In 2019, when Tewari had declared assets worth ₹15.46 crore, his movable assets were valued at ₹6.48 crore while that of his wife Naznin Shafa had movable assets worth ₹1.20 crore. Tewari and Shafa had immovable assets worth ₹3.11 crore and ₹3.55 crore in 2019, respectively.
In 2009, when Tewari filed nomination papers from Ludhiana, he had declared movable and immovable assets of ₹3 crore. In 2004, when Tewari filed his nomination from Ludhiana for the first time, he had declared assets valuing a little over ₹1 crore.
27 candidates have filed nominations
Compared to 2019, the total number of candidates who filed nominations for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat has come down. While during the last polls, 45 nominations had been received by the Election Commission, this time, the number has gone down to 27. Out of these two are covering candidates from Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The candidatures can be withdrawn on May 17 after scrutiny of papers. Three candidates (excluding covering candidates) are from national parties, 17 are independents and five from unrecognised parties. Also, only two women have thrown their hat in the ring this time -- Ritu Singh from BSP and independent candidate Rajinder Kaur.