Earlier this week, the people of five Indian States (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram) elected new assemblies to power. businessline analysed the profiles of all the new MLAs to find out how rich they are. In all five States, the richest MLA belonged to the winning party.
The richest among the newly-elected MLAs is Telangana’s Indian National Congress (INC) MLA G Vivekanand. Vivekanand and his spouse have assets worth ₹606.67 crore. A major proportion of it, ₹340 crore is in the form of bonds, debentures and shares in companies. They also own agricultural land worth ₹195 crore, according to his affidavit. The second and third richest among the new lot of MLAs also hail from Telangana and are members of the INC — Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who own assets worth ₹458.39 crore and ₹433.39 crore respectively. Both of them derive a lot of their wealth from bonds, debentures and shares in companies.
The richest MLA in the new Madhya Pradesh assembly is Chetanya Kasyap of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with assets worth ₹296 crore. According to his affidavit, the 59-year-old and his spouse together own seven houses cumulatively worth ₹175 crore. Kasyap is followed by BJP’s Sanjay Satyendra with assets worth ₹242 crore and former Chief Minister and INC MLA Kamal Nath with assets worth ₹134 crore. Nath and his spouse together have bonds, debentures, shares in companies, and deposits worth ₹18 crore. They own three residential buildings worth ₹51 crore, along with a 29-hectare agricultural land in the Chhindwara district valued at ₹29 crore.
In Rajasthan, the richest MLA is BJP’s Sidhi Kumari. A member of the erstwhile Royal family of Bikaner, she owns three residential buildings, including Karni Bhavan Palace, which she has inherited. The value of the palace is listed as ₹34.27 crore and her residential properties cumulatively have a value of ₹63.22 crore. INC’s Vidyadhar Singh, the second-richest Rajasthan MLA has assets worth ₹70 crore. He is followed by INC’s Ramkesh with ₹63.64 crore. Both of them have a major chunk of their wealth tied to immovable assets, including land and residential properties. While the former owns seven residential properties, the latter owns five.
The richest Chhattisgarh MLAs are BJP’s Bhawna Bohra and the State’s caretaker Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, with assets worth ₹33.89 crore and ₹33.38 crore respectively. Both of them have most of their wealth attached to immovable assets. Close to 89 per cent of Baghel’s wealth is derived from immovable assets. He and his wife jointly own six lands valued at ₹27 crore. In Mizoram, the richest MLAs are H Ginzalala and W Chhuanawma of Zoram People’s Movement with assets worth ₹36.09 crore and ₹35.64 crore respectively.
Second-richest assembly
Average assets of four of the newly-elected assemblies — Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram — registered an increase. An MLA in Telangana, on an average, owns assets worth ₹38.81 crore, making it the second-richest assembly in the country after Karnataka. In the last term, the average wealth of the assembly was ₹15.7 crore.
In Rajasthan, the assembly’s average asset worth grew 6.6 per cent; in Madhya Pradesh, it grew 14.7 per cent. In Mizoram, the growth was 68 per cent.
On the other hand, the new Chhattisgarh assembly stood out, with the average assets of the assembly dwindling from ₹11.6 crore to ₹5.2 crore. This is because, in the previous assembly, the average wealth was up owing to the assets owned by former INC MLA TS Baba (₹500 crore), who lost the elections in 2023.