Sanjeev Arora: AAP’s Richest Poll Candidate in Punjab with ₹278 Crore Assets

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and industrialist Sanjeev Arora has emerged as the richest poll candidate in Punjab in recent years, with declared assets worth ₹278 crore. Arora filed his nomination papers on Friday for the Ludhiana West Assembly by-election.

According to his affidavit, Arora owns movable assets worth ₹268 crore, including bank deposits of ₹2.71 crore, investments in bonds, shares, and mutual funds worth ₹254 crore, personal loans of ₹7.39 crore, a Toyota Fortuner worth ₹38.06 lakh, and gold and diamond jewellery valued at ₹2.14 crore. His immovable assets are pegged at ₹10.36 crore, comprising two land parcels in Kharar (Mohali) and Basant City (Ludhiana), and a residential property in Gurgaon valued at ₹8.25 crore. He also has liabilities of ₹19.43 crore, including bank loans.

If assets of his wife, Sandhya Arora, are included, the couple’s combined wealth stands at ₹302.11 crore. Sandhya owns assets worth ₹23.53 crore—₹14.88 crore in movable assets and ₹8.65 crore in immovable property—including co-ownership of the Gurgaon house and jewellery worth ₹1.99 crore.

Arora is the chairman and managing director of Ritesh Industries and Properties Limited (RPIL), a company with interests in real estate, women’s clothing, and fashion. RPIL also owns “Hampton Homes,” a luxury housing project on Chandigarh Road in Ludhiana. Despite his Ludhiana business links, Arora and his family reside in Gurgaon. He also runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. Though he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by AAP, this is his first direct electoral contest.

With his declared assets, Arora surpasses Punjab’s top political figures, including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh.

In the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, AAP’s Mohali candidate and real estate baron Kulwant Singh had declared assets worth ₹238 crore (including those of his spouse). SAD’s Sukhbir Singh Badal had declared ₹202 crore (with spouse) but lost from Jalalabad to AAP’s Jagdeep Kamboj.

Congress’s Karan Kaur Brar, daughter-in-law of former CM Harcharan Singh Brar, declared assets worth ₹155 crore as the Congress candidate from Muktsar in 2022 but lost. Congress leader Rana Gurjeet Singh, who owns distilleries and sugar mills across states, had declared ₹125 crore in assets and won from Kapurthala.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Harsimrat Kaur Badal was the richest candidate from Punjab with declared assets of ₹198.51 crore (including spouse’s). She retained her Bathinda seat. The second-richest was BJP’s Preneet Kaur, daughter-in-law of erstwhile Patiala Royals, who declared ₹60.78 crore, including the assets of her husband, former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. She lost from Patiala.