As the battlelines for the May 5 Assembly polls are being drawn, the electoral arena seems to be full of crorepatis jostling for political space.
Congress candidate from Vijayanagar constituency in Bellary, Abdul Wahab, has declared in the affidavit on assets and liabilities filed along with the nomination papers that he and his wife Mahira Wahab own assets worth Rs 71.03 crore. While Wahab, a mining tycoon, has declared that he has Rs 75 lakh in cash and Rs one crore as fixed deposits in banks, his wife’s savings bank balance totals Rs 26 lakh, besides a fixed deposit of Rs 1.92 crore. He has no liabilities.
The Wahab couple own a Mercedes Benz, Tata Fortuner, Mahindra XUV-500 and Carolla Altis; and commercial properties on Cunningham Road, Banashankari II Stage, M G Road, Vittal Mallya Road and residences on Whitefield Road and Nandidurga Road, all in Bangalore. While Wahab owns jewellery worth Rs 42.6 lakh, his wife owns jewellery worth Rs 1.56 crore. Wahab will face another multi-crorepati Tourism Minister Anand Singh in the polls.
Among other super rich candidates is prominent developer and BJP nominee from Chickpet, Uday B Garudachar. In his declaration, Garudachar has said that he and his wife own assets to the tune of Rs 95.74 crore. He has declared close to eight kg of gold in his and his wife’s name. While five kg of gold has been declared in his wife’s name, Garudachar himself has three kg of gold. The total value of the gold is placed at Rs 2.24 crore. Despite being a prominent builder, Garudachar does not own a single motor vehicle. His liabilities are placed at Rs 16.62 crore.
The total assets of Shantinagar Congress candidate N A Haris are about Rs 132 crore and liabilities are about Rs 3.5 crore. He has immovable assets of Rs 93 crore and movable assets of about Rs 39 crore. He has savings accounts in seven banks, fixed deposits in about nine banks and lent money to more than two dozens individuals and institutions and companies. He has jewellery worth about Rs 67 lakh. But he does not own any motor vehicle.
One super rich in fray in Rajajinagar
As the super rich contest the elections across the State, the contest in Rajajinagar appears to be a high profile battle of the relatively poor candidates and one super rich nominee.
The four-way fight is expected to be between sitting MLA S Suresh Kumar, KJP’s Shobha Karandlaje, Congress’ Manjula Naidu, who collectively have assets of not more than Rs nine crore, as compared to JD(S) candidate S T Anand, who has assets worth Rs 85.02 crore. Anand has declared his assets, mostly land purchases, at Rs 85 crore with Rs 7.72 crore as liabilities. Karandlaje, has declared assets of Rs 4.74 crore. Interestingly, of her declared Rs 3.86 crore in liabilities, she has shown that she owes Adarsh Developers a sum of Rs 3.66 crore. Suresh Kumar has declared assets of his family at Rs 2.63 crore with only Rs five lakh against his name. Perhaps, the ‘poorest’ candidate in the fray is Manjula Naidu, who has declared assets of only Rs 1.15 crore.
Assets and liabilities of B’lore candidates
Name party constituency asset liability
Padmanaba Reddy BJP Sarvagnagar 9.50 cr 52 lakh
K J George Cong Sarvagnagar 32.50 cr 29 lakh
Aravind Limbavali BJP Mahadevapura 6.12 cr 1.48 cr
M Krishnappa BJP B’lore south 34.63 cr 7.85 cr
A Narayanaswamy BJP Anekal 8.4 cr 4.1 cr
Prof B K Chandrashekar Cong Basavanagudi 7.84 cr nil
Ravi Subramanya BJP Basavanagudi 3.37 cr 35.82 lakh