Crorepatis play politics in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Mumbai has just two lakhpati candidates from over three dozen in the fray for six Lok Sabha seats. Almost all other candidates belonging to major parties are crorepatis. Banker Meera Sanyal, who filed her nomination on Thursday, with assets worth Rs 27.93 crore, is the third richest candidate to contest from the city.

Filing of nominations for the megapolis��� six parliamentary seats ended on Thursday. NCP candidate from Mumbai northeast, Sanjay Dina Patil, declared assets worth Rs 46 lakh, making him the second lakhpati candidate in the city after sitting Congress MP Eknath Gaikwad, who declared assets worth Rs 19 lakh. The city is home to some of the richest candidates in India. As reported by ET recently, businessman and Samajwadi Party candidate Abu Asim Azmi has declared Rs 124 crore in assets, Congress MP Priya Dutt Rs 37 crore and Milind Deora Rs 17 crore, lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani contesting on a BJP ticket is worth over Rs 27 crore.

Congress candidates Sanjay Nirupam (Rs 2.13 crore) and Gurudas Kamat (Rs 10.26 crore) also filed their nominations from the Mumbai north and Mumbai north west constituencies respectively. Fom Shiv Sena, veteran Gajanan Kirtikar filed his nomination declaring assets of about Rs 3.26 crore, up from Rs 1.67 crore in 2004.

Keeping in tradition with the belief of party chief Raj Thackeray that number ���9��� is a lucky one for him, all the five MNS candidates from the city filed their nominations on Thursday, April 9. First timers they are, all the candidates from the MNS, are ���crorepatis���. With assets of over Rs 18.50 crore, Shweta Parulkar is the richest candidate from the three-year-old party. Other candidates from the party are ��� Bala Nandgaonkar (Rs 3.19 crore), Shilpa Sarpotdar (Rs 3.38 crore), Shirish Parkar (Rs 1.4 crore) Shishir Shinde (Rs 1.68 crore) and Shalini Thackeray (Rs 5 crore).

Well known banker Meera Sanyal, who heads ABN-AMRO in India and is contesting as an independent from South Mumbai, has assets worth Rs 27.93 crore. She has deposits in banks, financial institutions and NBFCs worth over Rs four crore while her investments in bonds, debentures and shares of companies are collectively valued over Rs 9.69 crore.

The Sanyal couple owns jewellery of over Rs 12 lakhs and one flat each in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi collectively valued Rs 5.4 crore. The banker also owns a Maruti Zen car valued a little under Rs one lakh.

All will try their luck on April 30, the day city goes to polls.