Meet the richest MLCs of Telangana; but is it their real wealth or on paper?

Hyderabad: With assets worth Rs. 126 crores, TRS Member of Legislative Council Mallesham Yegge is the richest MLC, at least on paper. He is closely followed by another TRS MLC, Pochampally Srinivas Reddy, elected from Warangal, who owns assets worth Rs. 74 crores. Kasireddy Narayan Reddy of TRS is third with assets Rs. 50 crores.

Interestingly, TRS MLC K. Kavitha Rao, the daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, owns assets worth Rs. 39 crores, according to the election affidavit, while another MLC, Dr. Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, elected from Graduates Constituency, owns wealth worth Rs. 31 crores.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watch body based in Delhi, studied the affidavits of 33 out of 40 sitting MLCs of Telangana. Six affidavits could not be studied as these MLCs were nominated and are not required to submit affidavits. Hence, their information on criminal, financial, and other details are not available in the public domain.

These MLC belong to the TRS, Congress, AIMIM, and Independent candidates. Out of 33 MLCs, three (9%) are women. It is pertinent to note that out of the 33 MLCs who have declared their assets, 29 are crorepatis and the average assets per MLC is Rs. 17.80 crores, said the ADR report.

Among the major parties, the average assets per MLC for 27 TRS MLCs analysed is Rs. 21.32 crores, two AIMIM MLCs have average assets of Rs. 96.80 lakhs, one Congress MLC has assets worth Rs. 3.16 crores, and three Independent MLCs have average assets of Rs. 2.27 crores.

Talking about the richest MLC MalleshamYegge, most of his income comes from rental and capital gains.

MLCs with lowest assets

With assets worth Rs. 61 lakhs, AIMIM's Mirza Riyazul Hassan Effendi is the poorest MLC. TRS's Vullolla Gangadhar Goud with assets worth Rs. 70 lakhs and Medak MLC Yadava Reddy Vanteri with assets worth Rs. 74 lakhs are the MLCs with the least assets

Education background

As per the ADR report, four MLCs (12%) have declared their educational qualification as between class V and XII pass, while 29 MLCs (88%) are graduates or above. Meanwhile, six MLCs (18%) are aged between 31 and 50 years, while 16 (49%) are between 51 and 60 years old. Eleven MLCs (33%) are aged between 61 and 80 years.

TRS MLC Kavitha's assets grew in a span of 3 years

The election affidavit sourced by NewsMeter, revealed that the assets of the MLC Kavitha doubled in a span of 3 years. The movable assets of K Kavitha stands at Rs 14.78Cr while that of her spouse Anil Kumar Devanapalli is Rs 14.04 Cr. Her two sons Aaditya Devanapalli Ramayagari and Aarya Devanapalli owns properties worth Rs 6.86 L and Rs 2.04 lakh, respectively.

Together, the value of immovable assets owned by Kavitha's family is Rs 28.92 crore. It is pertinent to mention that, during 2019 General election, Kavitha informed the election office that her 'total' (movable + immovable) assets are worth Rs 7.63Crore while her husband- a businessman owned Rs 9.73 Crore wealth. It goes without saying, that Kavitha's investments grew multifold in the last 3 years.