An ageing MP pitted against three glamorous women in a designer city. Add to it the fact that all are wealthy and you have the perfect script for a poll potboiler.
Four-time parliamentarian Pawan Kumar Bansal faces a tough battle on his home turf as three leading ladies, all claiming to be “Chandigarh Girls” reach out to connect with the electorate. The 65-year-old Congress leader’s opponents can well become the fearsome threesome for him with their potent combination of looks, brains, money power and charm. Bollywood actresses and candidates Gul Panag of AAP and Kirron Kher of BJP along with Jannat Jahan of BSP are going all out to project the sitting MP as the villain of the piece.
Tom-tomming her Chandigarh girl status is former Miss India and actress Gul Panag. The 35-year-old starts her day early, at 5.45am, when after a cup of tea as she climbs into a Scorpio driven by her cousin Simran, her poll manager, chauffer and time keeper all rolled in one.
Healthcare, education and sanitation are topmost on Gul agenda for Chandigarh. “My vision for the villages in Chandigarh is to see them developed into mini-townships as compared to their current state of being grossly neglected,” she says. Clad mostly in kurta and jeans and not a trace of make-up, Panag gives little indication of the fact that she is the second richest candidate in the fray, worth Rs.12.90 crore.
Other than the Scorpio she is seen in, she owns an Audi Q5, a Toyota Innova, a Hero Honda bike and a TVS Moped. She has made investments to the tune of Rs.78 lakh and partly owns nine flats in different places as well as agricultural land. Her pilot husband is worth Rs.7.86 crore.
The most laidback among the three as far as campaign style is concerned is 58-year-old BJP candidate and the richest Kirron Kher. Immaculately turned out in stylish sarees, complemented by sparkling jewellery, Kher landed here from Mumbai with nine bags of clothes.
Kher is worth Rs.45.87 crore. She has movable assets worth Rs.7.69 crore which includes a Mercedes Benz and bank deposits of Rs.2.30 crore. In Chandigarh, she has 25 per cent share in a commercial building in Sector 17, the Sector 8 house which her father gifted to her and a flat in Juhu, Mumbai. Her husband Anupam Kher's assets are to the tune of Rs.14.30 crore.
The youngest among the three women is 33-year-old Jahan. A councillor from ward 23, she hits the campaign trail around 6.30am.
The “poorest” among all other candidates, the salwar-kameez clad Jahan, who claims to be worth a mere Rs.1.1 crore, travels in her husband’s Audi Q-5 with a team of women. She says she owns no house or car, but her husband’s annual agricultural income of Rs.1 crore ensures all that and more.
Meanwhile, Bansal starts his day by 6am. Bansal and his wife have declared assets to the tune of Rs.8.50 crore, nearly double the amount stated in 2009. His house in Sector 28 has a market value of Rs.10 crore. His share in the property is 50 per cent.