Gaddam Vivekanand of the Congress party is the richest MLA in the newly-elected Telangana Assembly with declared family assets of more than Rs 606 crores.
Out of 119 MLAs, six MLAs have assets of more than Rs 100 crore each, as per the information they furnished to the Election Commission in an affidavit while filing their nominations. Five of them are from the ruling Congress party and one is from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Sixteen MLAs have assets of Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore. As many as 90 have assets below Rs 50 crore and there are only seven who have declared assets of less than Rs 1 crore. Vivekanand, who had quit BJP to join Congress only a month before elections, was elected from Chennur constituency in Mancherial district.
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Vivek, as the industrialist politician is popularly known, is the founder and chairman of Visaka Industries Ltd. His wife Saroja is the managing director of the company. The 66-year-old former MP also holds an MBBS degree from Osmania University.
Vivek, who was elected to Lok Sabha from Peddapalli in 2009 on a Congress ticket, is the son of Congress leader and former union minister late G. Venkatswamy. Vivek’s brother and former minister G. Vinod, also from Congress, is one of the richest MLAs. Elected from Bellampalli, he declared assets of Rs 197 crore.
With assets of Rs 458 crore, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of the Congress party is the second richest MLA. He was elected from the Munugode constituency in the Nalgonda district. He too had quit BJP to return to Congress a month before the elections. He was with Congress till August last year before defecting to the BJP but lost the by-election to Munugode.
Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy of the Congress party is the third richest MLA with declared family assets of about Rs 434 crore. Ponguleti, who won the election from the Palair constituency in Khammam district, had joined Congress in July, a few months after he was suspended by the ruling party BRS for alleged anti-party activities.
Ponguleti, who has passed 12th class, declared in the affidavit that he is an agriculturist, social worker, and businessman while his wife is an agriculturist and business person. The net worth of former minister P. Sudershan Reddy, also of the Congress party, is over Rs 102 crore. He was elected from the Bodhan constituency.
Medak MP K. Prabhakar Reddy, who has been elected from Dubbak, is the lone BRS MLA in Rs 100 crore plus club. He had declared assets of Rs 197 crore.
BRS party’s Malla Reddy, who was a minister in the KCR Cabinet and owns a chain of engineering, medical, and other professional colleges and hospitals, had declared family assets of Rs 95.93 crore. Malla Reddy, who studied only 12th class, was re-elected from the Medchal constituency on a BRS ticket.
Malla Reddy’s son-in-law Marri Rajashekar Reddy, who was elected from Malkajgiri constituency on a BRS ticket, declared total family assets of nearly Rs 97 crore.
Re-elected from the Serilingampalli constituency in Greater Hyderabad, Arekapudi Gandhi of BRS declared assets of Rs 85 crore. B. Lakhsma Reddy, also of BRS, also owns family assets of Rs 85 crore. He has been elected from Uppal in Greater Hyderabad.
Interestingly, three MLAs with the lowest declared assets are also from the Congress party. All three were elected from constituencies reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Vedma Bhojju, who was elected from Khanapur constituency in Adilabad district, had declared assets of Rs 24 lakh. Balu Naik, who was elected from Devarkonda, and Adinayaran Jare, who was elected from Aswaraopet, have assets of Rs 28 lakh and Rs 56 lakh respectively.
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