A political debut that saw a nail-biting contest put media baron Karthikeya Sharma in the limelight again as he was directly elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana, defeating Congress veteran Ajay Maken.
The 41-year-old brother of Manu Sharma, convicted in the Jessica Lal murder case, and son of expelled Congress leader and former Union minister Vinod Sharma, Kartikeya Sharma was backed by the ruling coalition partners in Haryana, the Indian. Janata Party-Jannayak Janata Party (BJP-JJP) alliance.
A businessman and media proprietor by profession, he has completed his B.Sc. (Hons) in Business Masters in Management from Oxford University and in Business Administration from King’s College, London.
Kartikeya Sharma founded ITV Network in 2007 which operates various English and Hindi news channels and local dailies. iTV Network’s national channel NewsX, and regional channels such as India News Haryana, India News Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, India news Punjab and India news Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand dominate the Hindi speaking regions.
He also has stake in several five star hotels in Gurugram, Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab.
Kartikeya Sharma is married to Aishwarya Sharma, the daughter of former Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma.
According to the election affidavit, he has assets worth about one crore rupees. 390.63 crores. This includes Rs 14.60 crore in Piccadilly Hotels Pvt Ltd, Rs 35.04 lakh in Soon-n-Sure Holdings Ltd and Rs 367.65 crore in Mark Buildtech Pvt Ltd.
Talking to reporters after the results were declared, Karthikeya Sharma thanked Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP-JJP leaders for their support. He also expressed his gratitude to Congress rebel Kuldeep Bishnoi, whose vote turned out to be in his favour.
“I have just entered politics 10 days back, but have experience in the field of education, sports and youth affairs and I will work on these to raise the voice of Haryana in the Upper House of Parliament,” he said.
BJP’s Haryana chief OP Dhankhar thanked BJP-JJP MLAs, Independent MLAs and Kuldeep Bishnoi for supporting Sharma in the Rajya Sabha elections. In a video message shared on social media, Dhankhar said that Bishnoi heeded to his inner voice and voted for Kartikeya Sharma.
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