Jewellery, land, property: Ram Gopal Yadav declares assets worth over Rs 13 crore
Samajwadi Party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav, popularly known as “professor sahab”, has declared assets worth a cumulative Rs 13.61 crore after accounting for his outstanding liabilities, as he filed his nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
Yadav, a cousin of late Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and one of the party’s key parliamentary strategists, submitted his nomination papers in Lucknow in the presence of party president Akhilesh Yadav and other senior leaders.
According to the details provided in his election declaration, Yadav has movable assets worth Rs 4.61 and immovable assets valued at Rs 9.99 crore. Together, these put his total declared assets at Rs 14.61 crore.
After deducting outstanding liabilities of Rs 99.86 lakh, his net assets work out to approximately Rs 13.61 crore.
A significant portion of his declared wealth is in property. Yadav owns four plots in Jaswantnagar, Etawah, collectively valued at Rs 1.33 crore.
He also has two plots in Saifai, one valued at Rs 1.10 crore and the other at Rs 63.82 lakh. Two more plots in Sonai village in Jaswantnagar are valued at more than Rs 1.40 crore and more than Rs 25 lakh respectively.
His movable assets include substantial financial holdings. Yadav has Rs 1.39 crore deposited across three bank accounts and a fixed deposit of more than Rs 1 crore at the State Bank’s Parliament branch. He has also declared gold jewellery weighing more than half a kilogram, valued at approximately Rs 88.50 lakh.
The declaration also lists two firearms — a .30-bore American carbine and a .32-bore German revolver. Their values have not been included separately in the calculation above, in line with the asset figure provided.RG YADAV’S RAJYA SABHA CAREER
Yadav’s nomination marks another step in a parliamentary career spanning more than three decades. He first entered the Rajya Sabha in 1992 and served two consecutive terms until 2004.
He subsequently represented Sambhal in the Lok Sabha before returning to the Rajya Sabha in 2008. He was re-elected in 2014 and 2020, and the latest nomination puts him on course for a sixth term in the Upper House.
The veteran leader has remained closely associated with the Samajwadi Party’s parliamentary strategy and has served as its national general secretary and parliamentary group leader.
He backed Akhilesh Yadav during the 2016-17 family and party dispute involving Shivpal Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and later emerged as one of Akhilesh’s key advisers.
Speaking about his candidature, Yadav told reporters, “I am number one for the past 34 years. And now will be there (Rajya Sabha) again for six years.”
The SP has also fielded Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, a senior Reliance Industries executive and sports administrator, alongside Yadav. Both filed their nominations on Wednesday.
The Uttar Pradesh contest involves 10 Rajya Sabha seats, with polling scheduled for October 16.
The current Assembly numbers indicate that the BJP-led alliance has the strength to secure eight seats, while the SP, with Congress support, can secure two.
The SP has, however, indicated that it may field a third candidate, potentially turning the election into a contest if more candidates enter the fray. Party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury said, “We will declare a third candidate also.”
The immediate next steps are scrutiny of nominations on October 7 and withdrawal of candidature by October 9.
With Yadav’s nomination now filed and the SP’s second candidate also in the fray, attention will turn to whether the party proceeds with a third nominee and how the final arithmetic shapes up before voting on October 16.- EndsWith PTI inputs
