Meghalaya’s richest candidate is school dropout
A National People’s Party (NPP) candidate with ₹290 crore assets has emerged as the richest among all 443 candidates who have filed nominations for this month’s assembly election in Meghalaya.
In his affidavit, Ngaitlang Dhar, who is contesting from Umroi seat in Ri Bhoi district, mentions about owning 144 vehicles, including over 100 trucks, a Mercedes Benz car, a BMW car and a Toyota SUV.
The 49-year-old, who is a business tycoon with interests in construction and transport, was also the richest candidate in 2013, when he contested and won on a Congress ticket from the same seat. His net worth was ₹235 crore then. In the affidavit, which lists all his assets, Dhar, who studied till Class 8, gives details of his immovable property worth over ₹219 crore and movable property valued at over ₹71 crore. He also has ₹15 lakh in cash, around ₹1.4 crore in eight different bank accounts and invested ₹43 crores in mutual funds. Fifteen agricultural plots and 36 non-agricultural plots across Meghalaya are also registered in his name.
A four-storey commercial building in Gurgaon valued at ₹5.25 crore, and four residential properties, including a house in Shillong worth ₹4.48 crore and a flat in Guwahati valued at ₹1.05 crore are also listed. Dhar has liabilities of over ₹3.95 crore from two loans taken to purchase heavy vehicles.
His wife Mimi Lamare has movable and immovable properties valued at ₹4.92 crore.
Dhar’s 25-year-old son Dasakhiatbha Lamare is contesting from Mawhati seat on an NPP ticket and his brother Sniawbhalang, who had won from Nartiang in 2013 and was a minister in the ruling Congress government, is contesting from the same seat this year, also as an NPP candidate.
Sniawbhalang’s brother-inlaw Wailadmiki Shylla is another candidate from the family who is contesting from Jowai on a NPP ticket.
Dhar’s son’s total assets are over ₹40 crore, while his brother’s assets are over ₹3.84 crore. Shylla’s total assets are over ₹20 lakh. Headed by former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma’s son Conrad Sangma, NPP is an ally of the ruling NDA in the Centre.
Meghalaya will go to polls on February 27.
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