Most of the financially sound candidates of major parties in the fray in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections from the district have one thing in common — owning at least one property in or around Hyderabad in the neighbouring State, according to the assets declaration made in the affidavits.
The richest of them, Vasantha Venkata Krishna Prasad, an industrialist and son of former Minister Vasantha Nageswara Rao, contesting on YSR Congress Party ticket from Mylavaram Assembly constituency, owns properties worth ₹111.89 crore, including industries and immovable properties in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana.
Also, YSRCP’s Vijayawada Lok Sabha candidate Potluri Vara Prasad, who is worth ₹85.31 crore, owns an immovable property in Hyderabad and also in the U.S., while his wife, Jhansi Sureddi, owns assets worth ₹262. 21 crore.
His opponent and incumbent MP Kesineni Srinivas (TDP) has residential, non-agriculture and other properties in Sangareddy and Hyderabad worth several crores and has a total assets worth ₹76. 70 crore.
Also, Telugu Desam Party’s Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan and Devineni Avinash have assets in Hyderabad and surrounding areas and are worth ₹73.92 crore and ₹37.34 crore respectively, according to their declaration.
Machilipatnam YSRCP Lok Sabha candidate Balashowry Vallabhaneni, an industrialist, owns residential properties worth several crores in Hyderabad, Serilingampalli and other areas. He declared total assets of ₹72.20 crore in his name.
Similarly, Gannavaram YSRCP candidate Yarlagadda Venkata Rao (₹56. 78 crore), Jana Sena’s Avanigadda candidate M. Krishna Rao (₹13. 78 crore) and several others have assets in the neighbouring State. Vijayawada Central candidate Bonda Umamaheswara Rao has over ₹35 crore, and his colleague Bode Prasad has ₹23 crore worth assets. Vijayawada East TDP candidate Gadde Rama Mohan has assets of ₹8.32 crore.
YSRCP’s Kokkiligadda Rakshnannidhi, Meka Venkata Pratap Appa Rao, Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao, Dulam Nageswara Rao, Simhadri Ramesh Babu, Vellampalli Srinivas, K. Partha Sarathy, Boppana Bhava Kumar, Samineni Udaya Bhanu have declared assets worth over ₹5 crore.
Jana Sena Party too has candidates who are well off, including Machilipatnam’s B. Ramakrishna (₹6.13 crore), Avanigadda’s M. Krishna Rao (₹13.38 crore), Vijayawada East’s B. Rama Mohana Rao (₹10.33 crore) and Machilipatnam LS candidate Bandireddy Ramakrishna (₹9.73 crore).
BJP Vijayawada parliamentary candidate Dileep Kilaru has over ₹15 crore worth assets, while his wife Amareswari owns assets worth ₹121 crore.