Supriya Sule after filing her nomination for the Rajya Sabha election. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, Sept. 5: Supriya Sule — better known as Sharad Pawar’s daughter — has assets worth more than Rs 40 crore but no car.

Sule, 38, followed her father into politics today, filing her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections amid much fanfare.

The affidavit accompanying the papers declared assets worth Rs 42 crore. She has reported movable assets worth Rs 5.10 crore in her name, Rs 18.87 crore in husband Sadanand’s name, Rs 51 lakh in their daughter’s name and Rs 49 lakh in their son’s name.

The low-profile daughter of the Maharashtra heavyweight also owns immovable assets worth Rs 10.85 crore while her husband owns Rs 5.67 crore. The couple has a flat in Singapore.

A smiling Sule walked into Vidhan Bhavan with her husband, who runs a legal portal in Mumbai. While Pawar wasn’t present, most of the big guns in his Nationalist Congress Party were, including nephew Ajit Pawar who has so long been seen as his political heir. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel turned up, as did state NCP chief Arun Gujarathi, deputy chief minister R.R. Patil, PWD ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh, and energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil.

“Work would be my focus. It does not matter where I do it. The issue is how I do it,” Sule said when asked if she would focus on national or state politics.

She said she felt “more responsible” after coalition partner Congress backed her candidature for the September 18 poll. In the last Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress had fielded a nominee against Pawar’s friend and industrialist Rahul Bajaj, who contested as an Independent. Pawar rallied the support of the Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP combine to ensure victory for the Bajaj Auto chairman but relations with the Congress soured.

Although chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was not present today to cheer Sule, his rivals in the Congress — state chief Prabha Rau and revenue minister Narayan Rane — were there.

If elected, she would focus on women’s empowerment and the education and health sectors, Sule said. Her victory is a foregone conclusion with the Congress backing her candidature and the BJP-Sena silent about their candidate. Since both the Opposition parties are eyeing an alliance with the NCP for the crucial municipal elections in early 2007, it is unlikely they will field a nominee against Pawar’s daughter.

Married with two children, Sule lived abroad for over a decade after her marriage but returned three years ago.

She has since been helping manage the Pawar family’s trusts and educational institutions. She runs a public school named after her father at Bhandup in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs and is a trustee in the YB Chavan Centre, a cultural organisation in south Mumbai. Sule has also worked with the backward classes and been a part of women’s self-help groups.