Padmavathi, Byrathi Suresh worth Rs 424 crore

Congress’ Hoskote candidate Padmavathi and her husband, Hebbal legislator Byrathi Suresh, own ten vehicles, including high-end Benz cars and have assets worth Rs 424 crore, according to her election affidavit.

Padmavathi is making her electoral debut at Hoskote, where she is up against disqualified legislator MTB Nagaraj who is contesting on the BJP ticket. She is also facing BJP’s rebel Sharath Bachegowda, who is contesting as an independent.

Padmavathi and Suresh together have movable assets worth Rs 16.63 crore, while their immovable assets run into Rs 407 crore, most of which belongs to the Hebbal legislator. Padmavathi has identified her source of income as business whereas it is “salary, agriculture and house property income” for Suresh. In 2018-19 fiscal, Padmavathi declared in her I-T returns a total income of Rs 9,11,585.

The couple seems to have an affinity for cars. Padmavathi owns a Prado, Audi, Hyundai i20, a JCB (backhoe) and a Rs 91 lakh Benz. Suresh has three Innovas, one Mahindra jeep and a Rs 1 crore Benz. In all, their cars are worth Rs 3.13 crore, according to the affidavit.

The couple own 3,512 grams of gold worth Rs 1.36 crore and 60 kg silver worth Rs 30 lakh. The affidavit also reveals that Suresh has liabilities of Rs 24.75 crore.

Padmavathi’s opponent Nagaraj, who was earlier with the Congress, is one of Karnataka’s richest politicians. He has declared assets of about Rs 1,223 crore.

Her other opponent Sharath, the son of Chikballapur Lok Sabha member B N Bachegowda, has assets worth Rs 138 crore along with his wife Pratibha. He has declared that he has a case pending against him under IPC sections 143, 147, 188, 341, 353 read with 149 (unlawful assembly, obstructing government duty etc), which he has challenged.

I’ve paid my taxes: MTB

BJP’s MTB Nagaraj on Saturday defended his assets saying he had paid taxes for all of it. His asset declaration drew much attention as records showed an increase of wealth by more than Rs 160 crore in a span of 18 months. “I’ve paid taxes for all the assets. Since I am a businessman, I’ve several sources of income. I have not joined the BJP because of monetary reasons. I am contesting only to serve the people,” he said, expressing confidence that he will win the bypolls.