TNN

New Delhi, Apr 16: Deepak Bhardwaj of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday filed his nominations papers from the West Delhi constituency, declaring assets worth a whopping Rs 600 crore.

Bhardwaj is the richest candidate, so far, for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections surpassing the previous richest candidate who had declared assets worth Rs 514 crore.

Interestingly, the candidate who belongs to Mayawati's party came on a tractor that he uses on his farmland, to the Rampura election office in West Delhi to file his nomination.

The 58-year-old tycoon owns businesses in real estate, hotels and education. He runs a school in Dwarka called the Shiksha Bharti Public School and plans to open two more schools- one in Dwarka and the other in Dhansa, both in West Delhi.

A resident of Lajwanti Garden in West Delhi, Bhardwaj also owns a township project called Deepganga in Hardwar and a hotel called Nitesh Kunj Hotel Complex on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway.

Earlier this week, the previous richest LS candidate, a Mumbai-based businessman, filed his nomination as an Independent from Surendranagar. Khimji Patadia, 53, has declared assets worth Rs 514 crore, mainly in jewellery and real estate.

Besides Patadia, Bhardwaj beats candidates like the Congress’s L Rajagopal from Vijaywada (Rs 299 crore), the BSP’s Karan Singh Tanwar from South Delhi (Rs 150 crore) and the SP’s Abu Azmi from Mumbai NW (Rs 122 crore).