BSP candidate from Jewar in Greater Noida declares Rs6.71 crore assets

BSP Jewar candiate Vedram Bhati submitted stated his personal wealth in an affidavit filed during his nomination

Sitting MLA and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Jewar assembly constituency, Vedram Bhati, has declared assets worth Rs6.72 crore in the affidavit submitted to the election commission while filing his nomination papers in Gautam Budh Nagar district on Wednesday.

Sitting MLA Vedram Bhati was a minister in BSP chief Mayawati’s cabinet in UP. (HT File Photo)

In 2012, he had declared assets worth Rs4.45 crore in his election affidavit. Bhati is a two-time MLA from Jewar seat and was a cabinet minister in the BSP government in the state from 2007 to 2012.

His affidavit states that he has Rs27.50 lakh in cash and his annual income is Rs23.94. In 2012, he had declared an annual income of Rs4.45 lakh. However, Bhati said there is no increase in his assets in the last five years.

“There is no increase in my assets at all. I have ancestral agricultural land and also own a brick kiln in Jewar. The value of my assets witnessed an increase due to hike in circle rates that takes place annually in each district. Also, the Yamuna expressway industrial development authority had acquired a part of our land and paid us compensation. We had, in 2015, invested that compensation money into buying agricultural land,” he said.

Bhati, a law graduate from Meerut University, has declared his residential plot, agricultural land and house to be worth a total of Rs6.42 crore.

He has also listed moveable properties worth Rs56 lakh and a Toyota Fortuner that he did not have in the 2012 elections. At that time, he had only Rs10 lakh of moveable assets, as per his declarations made to the election commission then.

All three BSP candidates who filed nominations in Gautam Budh Nagar in Noida, Dadri and Jewar assembly constituencies have no criminal case lodged against them.

Ravikant Mishra, who is named from Noida, has declared assets worth Rs2.6 crore and Dadri candidiate Satveer Singh Gurjar has declared assets worth Rs4.36 crore. Mishra is a first-timer and runs a playschool in Noida’s Sector 50 while Gurjar is a farmer who won the Dadri seat in 2007 and 2012.