Tirupati By-Polls: All Four Candidates Have Case-Free Records

Four candidates are in the fray for the Tirupati Lok Sabha Constituency by-elections to be held on April 17, with Tuesday being the last day for filing nominations. 

Candidates belonging to major parties filed nominations including ruling YSRCP candidate Dr M Gurumurthy, Panabaka Lakshmi from TDP, former Karnataka CS K Ratnaprabha from BJP and former Tirupati MP Chinta Mohan from Congress. One of the interesting aspects of the affidavits submitted by the candidates is that none of them has criminal cases filed against them.

According to the affidavit submitted by these four candidates while filing nominations, the details of their assets are as follows.

YSRCP candidate Dr Gurumurthy's family assets are worth Rs 47.25 lakh. He has assets worth Rs 10,66,515 in his name and assets worth Rs 24,92,529 in the name of his wife Navyakiran. They have a car worth Rs 7 lakh in his wife's name.  In his Mannasamudram village in Yerpedu Mandal has two acres of agricultural land (DKT) and a house admeasuring 2,610 square feet there. The current market value of the house is said to be  Rs 5 lakh. There are no debts and no criminal cases registered against him. According to Gurumurthy affidavit, his dependants Karthikeya Nikshal possess 62 grams of gold and Delina Nikshal has 83 grams of gold.

TDP's Panabaka Lakshmi Lakshmi has family properties worth Rs.10,23,38,628. She has assets worth Rs 7.77 crore in her name and assets worth Rs 2.45 crore in the name of her husband Panabaka Krishnaiah. Panabaka Lakshmi's bank accounts have cash and other assets worth Rs 2.05 crore, agricultural land and fixed assets worth Rs 5.70 crore. She said her husband Panabaka Krishnaiah had Rs 44.37 lakh in his bank accounts. They mentioned that agricultural income and pensions were the main sources of income for their family.

She also mentioned in her affidavit, that in Krishna district she has five and a half acres in her name at Tativarru in Gudivada. Another 4.40 acres of agricultural land, was also registered in her name. She also mentioned that in Venkannapalem village in  Kota Mandal there are 2.34 acres, 15.05 acres in Chittedu and 6 acres of land and house in Kota. She also said that there were 1,212 square yards of land in Hyderabad and Vijayawada in her name and two flats in Hyderabad.  There was also  400 square yards of land in Shamshabad in Hyderabad registered in her husband's name. She also stated that there were no police cases filed against her anywhere.

BJP candidate K Ratnaprabha's family assets were said to be worth Rs 24.68 crore. Of this, the value of assets in the name of Ratnaprabha is Rs.19,57,75,095. The assets in the name of Ratnaprabha's husband A. Vidyasagar are Rs.5,10,77,146. Ratnaprabha has Rs 25,000 cash in hand, Rs 2.81 crore in banks, Rs 28,000 in bonds and Rs 4 lakh in a post office account. She also mentioned that she has gold worth Rs 52 lakh and silver worth Rs 1.95 lakh.

Her affidavit also states that there are two types of agricultural land worth Rs 16 lakh and non-agricultural land worth Rs 3 crore. She has a loan of Rs 2.43 lakh in her name with SBI. Movable assets worth Rs 1 crore,  fixed assets worth Rs 4.10 crore in the name of her husband. He has an agricultural loan of Rs 17.30 lakh from Andhra Bank. There are no criminal cases against them. A native of Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, she is a 1981 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, who retired from service in  2018 and joined the BJP after retirement.

The family assets of Congress candidate Chinta Mohan are worth Rs 3.27 crore. His annual income was said to be Rs 6.10 lakh as included in the affidavit. He has assets worth Rs 3.27 crore in the name of his wife Chinta Revathi. Of these, Rs 2 lakh was in cash and Rs 14,40,000 was in the form of gold ornaments. In Tirupati, he owns 20 cents of non-agricultural land valued at Rs 1.20 crore. A commercial building worth Rs 95 lakh in Ramachandranagar in Tirupati and a debt of Rs 19.11 lakh with the SBI. There are no cases registered against him either.

The Tirupati Parliament seat fell vacant last year following the death of sitting MP, Balli Durga Prasad, who died of  Covid-19 last September 2020.

Also Read: Tirupati Lok Sabha By-Polls: YSRCP Candidate Dr Gurumurthy Files Nomination