BJP MLA Parag Shah maintains strong lead in Ghatkopar East with 35,199 votes

Parag Shah, the wealthiest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in Maharashtra with a net worth of ₹3,382 crore, wins from Ghatkopar East by over 34,999 votes. The 55-year-old politician defeated Rakhee Harishchandra Jadhav of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sandeep Sudhakar Kulthe of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
In his affidavit to the Election Commission ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, Parag Shah and his wife declared combined assets of ₹3,382 crore. This includes ₹3,315 crore in movable assets, with ₹2,179 crore listed under Shah’s name and ₹1,136 crore under his spouse’s name. Their immovable assets were valued at ₹67 crore.
A real estate builder and the head of Man Infra Construction Limited, Shah declared a net worth of ₹500 crore in 2019. Over the past five years, his assets have grown nearly sixfold. Shah, a Gujarati Jain with a commerce background, began his career in the family construction business in 1991. In 2002, he founded Man Infra Construction Limited, leveraging his business acumen and entrepreneurial skills.
With over 25 years of experience in the construction industry, Shah has created employment opportunities for thousands over the years. In February 2017, Parag Shah was elected as a Bharatiya Janata Party municipal councillor from Ghatkopar East, Ward No. 132. In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, Shah won the seat with 73,054 votes, while MNS’s Satish Pawar secured 19,735 votes.
However, in 2014, BJP’s Prakash Mehta had won the seat with 67,012 votes, defeating Shiv Sena’s Jagdish Chaudhary, who received 26,885 votes. Parag Shah is a trustee of Shri Ramji Ashar Vidhyalay High School in Ghatkopar, where he completed his schooling. He played an active role in constructing a new building for the school’s English-medium section.
Following the Pulwama attack in February 2019, he launched a fundraising drive for the Army Welfare Association, collecting ₹40 lakh from citizens. He matched this with a personal contribution of ₹40 lakh, donating a total of ₹80 lakh to the association. Ghatkopar East is one of the 26 constituencies in the Mumbai Suburban district, part of the Mumbai North East Lok Sabha constituency.