Sugar baron Rana Gurjit is Punjab’s richest candidate

CHANDIGARH: Sugar baron Rana Gurjit Singh, contesting on a Congress ticket from Kapurthala, is the richest candidate in the fray in Punjab.

Singh, who owns distilleries and sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, has, along with his wife, declared movable and immovable assets worth Rs 169.88 crore, which have more doubled from Rs 68.46 crore in 2012. The businessman-turnedpolitician, who is a matriculate from Dagshai Public School in Himachal Pradesh, has topped the list of 1,941 candidates, including powerful politicians, businessmen, realtors and even a jailed liquor baron, for 117 seats in the state.

Murder accused Shiv Lal Doda is the second richest in a list of Punjab’s 10 wealthiest candidates prepared by Hindustan Times after gleaning the affidavits submitted by the contestants with their nomination papers to the poll authorities in the past one week.

Doda, accused in the murder of Dalit youth Bhim Tonk in December 2015, has declared assets worth Rs 141.85 crore. The liquor contractor, who put ‘under matric’ in the education column, is lodged in Amritsar jail and contesting as an Independent from Abohar.

The rich list also features Congress MLA Karan Brar, who was the wealthiest candidate in 2012, and Shiromani Akali Dal chief and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal whose riches have become a talking point in the state polls with the rival parties, especially the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), letting go of no opportunity to hit out at growing businesses.

The AAP also has its own set of crorepati candidates -- two of them figure among the wealthiest in the fray.

1941 FILE PAPERS, 1,040 ON LAST DAY

As many as 1,040 nominations were filed on Wednesday, the last day for filing of nomination for the February 4 Punjab polls, taking the number of candidates to 1,941. Fifteen nominations were filed for the Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll of which 10 were received on the last day. A per the schedule, scrutiny of the papers will take place on Thursday.