Lok Sabha elections: Multimillionaires in fray in Andhra and Telangana

EVMs being dispatched from the strong room to their respective polling booths in Chennai, ahead of single-phase polling in Tamil Nadu on April 19.

Several multimillionaires are testing their fortunes in the ongoing general elections in the two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with Telugu Desam Party candidate from Guntur parliamentary constituency Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, turning out to be the richest-ever among the contestants.

A post-graduate doctor in internal medicine from Geisinger Medical Centre in Danville, Pennsylvania in the US, 48-year-old Chandrasekhar, a debutant in the electoral politics, declared his family assets totalling ₹5,785.28 crore, making him the richest contesting candidates in the country, so far. Follow full coverage of the Lok Sabha elections here

He filed his nomination papers with the Election Commission on Monday, along with an affidavit in which he declared his and his family assets.

The second richest candidate after Chandrasekhar is Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Chevella in Telangana.

Vishweshwar Reddy, who is the son-in-law of Apollo Group of Hospitals chairman C Pratap Reddy, filed his nomination papers on Monday along with an affidavit in which he declared movable and immovable assets worth ₹4,568 crore.

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On April 19, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu declared that the total value of his assets and that of his wife Nara Bhuvaneshwari was ₹931.83 crore. However, Bhuvaneshwari accounts for the lion’s share of this property – it is around ₹895.47 crore and Naidu’s net worth is only ₹36.35 crore.

On the other hand, YSR Congress Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy declared the value of his family at ₹757 crore. Jagan, who filed his nomination for the Pulivendula assembly constituency, declared the value of his own assets at ₹527 crore. In the 2019 polls, his family assets were shown as ₹510 crore.

While Jana Sena Party candidate for Nellimarla assembly constituency in Vizianagaram district Lokam Naga Madhavi declared her assets worth ₹898.73 crore, TDP candidate for Nellore Lok Sabha seat Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy and his wife Vemireddy Prashanti, who is also contesting for Kovur assembly seat, together declared their assets worth ₹715.62 crore. Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh who filed his papers for Mangalagiri assembly seat on Monday, declared assets worth ₹542 crore for his family as against ₹373 declared in the 2019 elections.

On Tuesday, popular Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party founder Konidala Pawan Kalyan filed his nomination from Pithapuram assembly seat. He declared assets worth ₹164.52 crore. In 2019, he projected the value of his assets at ₹52 crore.

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