Newsmaker | Kartikeya Sharma: The media baron and son of a veteran politician who toppled Congress

A businessman and a media proprietor by profession, did his B.Sc. (Honours) in Business Management from Oxford University and his Masters in Business Administration from King’s College, London.

He established the iTV network in 2007. His news network has become one of India’s leading news networks that operates various English and Hindi news channels and vernacular 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, have gained dominance in these Hindi speaking areas.

In all, under the iTV network, there are three national news channels, two newspapers, five regional news channels and two online portals with over 3,000 employees.

Kartikeya also has stakes in several five-star hotels in Gurgaon, Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab.

Kartikeya is married to Aishwarya Sharma, the daughter of former Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma.

According to his election affidavit, Kartikeya owns assets worth Rs. 390.63 crore. This includes Rs 14.60 crore in Piccadily Hotels Private Limited, Rs 35.04 lakh in Soon-N-Sure Holdings Limited, and Rs 367.65 crore in Mark Buildtech Private Limited.

Kartikeya was convicted under Sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in three cheque bounce cases by the court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Borivali, Mumbai, on May 23, 2018. His affidavit mentions that in two cases, he was sentenced to six-months simple imprisonment with Rs 7.25 lakh fine each. In the third case, he was sentenced to six-months simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs 14 lakh. Appeals against all three cases are pending in the sessions court, Goregaon, Mumbai. Vide court’s orders dated June 21, 2018, the sentences passed on May 23, 2018, were suspended till the decision on appeals.

Sharma was backed by the 10 MLAs in Dushyant Chautala’s JJP while filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls from Haryana as an Independent candidate.

For the poll, the BJP had nominated former transport minister and five-time MLA Krishan Lal Panwar, and the Congress picked AICC general secretary Ajay Maken. Since the BJP had a clear 31 votes for Panwar, it was a tight contest for the second seat.

As the polling date approached, Kartikeya began gathering more support with BJP, INLD, HLP and Independent MLAs coming out openly in his support. Eventually, he succeeded to trip Congress’ Ajay Maken and has made it to the Rajya Sabha.