Richest candidate got 1,558 votes, lost deposit

The richest candidate in the Lok Sabha elections -- Ramesh Kumar Sharma, an Independent from the Patliputra seat in Bihar who declared over Rs 1,107 crore -- lost his deposit as he could manage only 1,558 votes.

Of the five richest candidates -- all from the Congress but for Sharma -- three won the elections.

Sharma could garner only 0.14 per cent of the total votes, fourth from below among the 26 candidates in the fray for the Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat.

Ram Kripal Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the seat with over 5 lakh (47.28 per cent) votes. Rashtriya Janata Dal's Misha Bharti, daughter of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad, came second with 4.7 lakh (43.63 per cent) votes.

The second richest candidate in 2019 elections was Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Congress) with Rs 895 crore assets. He gave a tough fight in the Chevella constituency, Telangana, but lost to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate G. Ranjith Reddy by 14,317 votes.

The third richest in this Lok Sabha race was Nakul Nath, son of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, with assets worth Rs 660 crore. A Congress candidate from the Chhindwara constituency of Madhya Pradesh, he won the seat by over 35,000 votes.

The fourth richest, also from the Congress, was Vasanthakumar H with over Rs 417 crore assets. He won the Kanyakumari seat in Tamil Nadu with about three lakh votes.

Fifth richest candidate, Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress, declared assets worth over Rs 374 crore. He lost the election with a margin of over 1 lakh votes from the Guna parliamentary seat in Madhya Pradesh to Krishna Pal Singh of the BJP.

--IANS

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