'Crorepatis' play for Mumbai suburbs

The battle for the 26 constituencies in Mumbai's suburbs in the Maharashtra assembly polls will be almost exclusively fought between crorepatis.

The average number of such lucky people between the main players — Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS — is a whopping 62 per cent of all the candidates they’ve fielded. But the wealth of even these candidates pale in comparison to the Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi, who has declared assets worth Rs 126.88 crore. Azmi is contesting from the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar seat which, incidentally, has among the largest slum populations in Mumbai.

The statistics have been compiled by the watchdog, National Election Watch, which has sourced data from sworn affidavits deposited by candidates with the Election Commission while filing nomination papers. The exhaustive data reveals that Mumbai's tag as the financial capital of India is not just for business transactions.

The partywise breakup of these richest candidates sees the BJP leading with 78 per cent, followed by the NCP with 67, Congress 63, MNS 52 and Shiv Sena 50. In average net worth of the candidates, the BJP again leads with Rs 6.02 crore, with the others at — Congress Rs 4.88 crore, MNS Rs 2.12 crore, NCP Rs 1.43 crore and Shiv Sena Rs 1.06 crore.

To get a handle on the kind of candidates pitted against each other, look at Ghatkopar West’s five-way faceoff, with Poonam Vajdalla Rao of the BJP leading with Rs 23.3 crore. Secondis R S Kadam of the MNS with Rs 14 crore and the list also includes M S Kamble (BSP, Rs 7.25 crore), D G Palani (IND, Rs 2.53 crore) and J L D'Souza (Cong, Rs 1.64 crore). The posh Andheri West has a six-way contest between candidates with assets from Rs 7.4 crore to Rs. 1.08 crore.