Telangana Assembly polls: Richest and poorest candidates in fray

With voting in Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan concluding, all eyes are on the southern state of Telangana as political parties are striving hard to secure their victory in the results of the 2023 Assembly elections.

As the state goes to polls on November 30, it is till December 3 that the contesting candidates will have to wait to find out who emerged victorious.

Meanwhile, let us find out who the richest and poorest candidates in Telangana are.

As many as 270 candidates are contesting the Telangana polls with assets valued at Rs 5 crore or more, and 950 candidates with less than Rs 10 lakh worth assets.

Overall, out of the 2,290 candidates analysed by Association for Democratic Reforms, 580 (25 per cent) are crorepatis.

Of these crorepatis, maximum crorepatis come from BRS (114) and least (8) from All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

However, the richest candidate in fray in the Telangana polls this year is Gaddam Vivekanand from the Indian National Congress who is fighting for the Chennur (SC) constituency. Vivekanand has Rs 6,06,67,86,871 worth of total assets, of which Rs 3,80,76,38,171 are movable and Rs 2,25,91,48,700 are immovable assets.

Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy from the same party follows Vivekanand on the list of the candidates with highest assets with Rs 4,58,39,39,115 worth of total assets. Of this, Rs 1,56,84,04,037 are immovable assets and Rs 3,01,55,35,078 are movable.

Third richest candidate is yet again from Congress. Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy is contesting from the Palair constituency with Rs 4,33,93,34,880 of total assets.

Even though BRS has more crorepatis compared to other parties, only two of their candidates make it to the top ten richest list, while seven come from the Congress.

Coming to the poorest candidates, Maddileti contesting the Alampur (SC) seat from All India Samata Party, Mahendar Bhukya and Vanguri Jayashanker from Bharatha Chaitanya Yuvajana Party have Rs 500 worth of total assets each.

While Mahendar Bhukya is contesting the Dornakal (ST) seat, Jayashanker is in the race for Nagarkurnool constituency.

While parties are leaving no stones unturned to woo the voters in Telangana, it is now for us to wait and watch if the BRS will regain power in the state or a new history will be scripted with BRS getting ousted for the first time ever since the inception of the southern state.