Rajinder Gupta: The Ludhiana Businessman Who Is India's Second Richest Rajya Sabha MP

North Desk correspondent

Rajinder Gupta of AAP has declared assets of over ₹5,053 crore — more than Jaya Bachchan, more than Kapil Sibal, and almost as much as the entire BJP Rajya Sabha contingent combined

Chandigarh, March 22 — There is a man from Ludhiana who sits in the Rajya Sabha and is worth more than Bollywood royalty, more than India’s most prominent lawyers, and more than most of the politicians who have spent decades in the business of politics.

His name is Rajinder Gupta. He is 66 years old. He passed his Class 10 from Government Model High School, Cemetery Road, Ludhiana, in 1975. He represents Punjab in the upper house of Parliament on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket. And according to an analysis of Rajya Sabha MP affidavits released this week by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a New Delhi-based electoral watchdog, he has declared total assets of ₹5,053 crore — making him the second richest sitting Rajya Sabha MP in the country.

Only one man has him beat: Sri Dr Bandi Partha Saradhi of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi from Telangana, whose declared wealth stands at ₹5,300 crore, according to the ADR report.

The gap between second and third is enormous. Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy of YSRCP from Andhra Pradesh is at ₹2,577 crore. Gupta is nearly double that. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s wife Jaya Bachchan, at ₹1,578 crore, doesn’t come close. Kapil Sibal, the lawyer-turned-independent MP, has declared ₹608 crore. Kamal Haasan, the film star-turned-politician, is at ₹305 crore.

The yarn that became an empire

Behind those numbers is a business story that Punjab’s industrial belt occasionally produces — and rarely repeats.

Gupta started with yarn. One unit. One product. The timing was fortunate: India was cracking open its economy in the early 1990s, and Punjab’s fertile land was suddenly attractive to first-generation entrepreneurs with ambition and access to capital. Gupta had both.

That single yarn unit became the Trident Group — today a USD 2 billion-plus conglomerate with annual revenues exceeding ₹7,047 crore, manufacturing terry towels, home textiles, paper, stationery, yarn, and chemicals, selling into 100 countries. Along the way, Trident became the largest manufacturer of terry towels in the world. Not in India. In the world.

The government noticed. Gupta was awarded the Padma Shri. He is now Chairman Emeritus of the group, the empire largely in the hands of the next generation — while he occupies a different kind of seat in New Delhi.

What the numbers say

The ADR analysis based on affidavits submitted by candidates to the Election Commission of India, covers 229 of the 233 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs. Gupta’s declared assets break down into ₹4,437 crore in movable assets and ₹615 crore in immovable property. His liabilities are a remarkably modest ₹6 crore — which means his net worth on paper is almost exactly what his gross assets suggest.

His income tax filings, also part of the affidavit disclosure, tell an interesting story of their own. His declared self-income for 2024-25 was ₹24 crore — but his dependent’s ITR for the same year shows ₹146 crore. In the peak year of 2021-22, the dependent’s income alone was ₹101 crore, and Gupta’s own declared income that year was ₹63 crore. His sources of income are listed simply as: Business & Investment.

The AAP paradox

The ADR numbers throw up a striking political irony. AAP — the party that came to power in Delhi and then Punjab on a platform of anti-corruption and ‘aam aadmi’ politics — turns out to field the wealthiest MPs in the Rajya Sabha by average assets. Also read: The AAP MP Who Owns Nothing — And Has Cleaned More Than Most Politicians Ever Will

With 10 MPs and combined declared assets of ₹5,740 crore, AAP tops the ADR’s party-wise wealth table — ahead of BRS (₹5,524 crore, 3 MPs), YSRCP (₹3,658 crore), and even INC (₹3,601 crore, 28 MPs). The average AAP Rajya Sabha MP is worth ₹574 crore — nearly five times the INC average and twenty times the BJP average.

Gupta alone accounts for the bulk of that. Punjab sends 7 MPs to the Rajya Sabha with combined declared assets of ₹5,729 crore, per the ADR data. Gupta’s ₹5,053 crore is nearly 88 per cent of that total.

One pending case — and a Maharashtra connection

The same affidavit that reveals Gupta’s wealth also discloses one criminal case against him. An FIR was registered in 2021 at City Yavatmal police station in Nagpur, Maharashtra, under IPC sections covering cheating, criminal breach of trust, and common intention. No charges have been framed. Gupta challenged the FIR before the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench; the State of Maharashtra subsequently told the court the allegations had been found to be false, with a cancellation report pending approval from senior officials.

Combined wealth

The ADR report puts the total combined declared wealth of all 229 MPs analysed at ₹27,638 crore, with the average MP worth ₹120 crore.

Rajinder Gupta’s declared assets are 42 times that average. He built those assets selling towels — and yarn, and paper, and chemicals — from a single unit in Punjab to living rooms across 100 countries. He then walked into politics carrying an AAP card and a net worth that makes him one of the most powerful industrialists ever to sit in India’s upper house.

Top 10 Rajya Sabha MPs by Declared Assets — March 2026

Rank	Name	Party	State	Total Assets
1	Bandi Partha Saradhi	BRS	Telangana	₹5,300 cr+
2	Rajinder Gupta	AAP	Punjab	₹5,053 cr+
3	Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy	YSRCP	Andhra Pradesh	₹2,577 cr+
4	Abhishek Manu Singhvi	INC	Telangana	₹2,558 cr+
5	Jaya Bachchan	SP	Uttar Pradesh	₹1,578 cr+
6	Kapil Sibal	IND	Uttar Pradesh	₹608 cr+
7	Santrupt Mishra	BJD	Odisha	₹595 cr+
8	Vikramjit Singh Sahney	AAP	Punjab	₹498 cr+
9	Meda Raghunadha Reddy	YSRCP	Andhra Pradesh	₹475 cr+
10	Dilip Kumar Ray	IND	Odisha	₹456 cr+

Source: Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysis of Rajya Sabha MP affidavits, March 19, 2026. All figures are self-declared by MPs in affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India.