Chandrababu Naidu, family worth Rs 39.88 crore

After being questioned about his wealth in the wake of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement, the Telugu Desam Party President and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu on Friday declared his assets and those of his family members.  

Naidu revealed that he and his family own assets worth Rs  39.88 crore, but his personal assets were valued at Rs 40 lakh, which includes one Ambassador car and a house. His wife and head of the Heritage Food Company in Bhuvaneshwari has assets worth Rs 39.77 crore, owes a debt of Rs 12 crore. While Naidu's son N Lokesh Babu owns Rs 6.73 crore in assets, his daughter-in-law Brahmini is worth Rs 3 crore.

Naidu told a press conference in Hyderabad that he was declaring the assets with the aim of bringing transparency in public life. Rebutting the allegations of his opponents that his assets were more than Rs 1,000 crore worth, Naidu said, "If any body shows that my family and I have any thing more than what I have declared, I will hand it over to him".

Naidu refuted that he owned any hotel in Singapore or a township in Malaysia. He also denied owning a piece of land in Nellore District, saying he had sold it to his relatives long ago. He also clarified while declaring the value of the assets he did not keep in mind the prevailing market rate.  

The assets Naidu declared include his house in Jubilee Hills (construction cost Rs 23 lakh). He said that house was mortgaged to a bank.

Naidu said that his family had 48 per cent stake in Heritage Food Company and its business was established in five states. He put the debt of the company at Rs 98 crore.

His wife Bhuvaneshwari has an investment of Rs 19.95 crore in the company. She also had an investment of Rs 13.77 crore in an unlisted company Nirvana Holdings and another Rs 98 lakh in Heritage Agro Marine Private Limited Company. She has 2,780 grams of gold worth Rs 26.96 lakh and 32.7 kg of silver worth Rs  60.54 lakh. Bhuvaneshwari has Rs 65.44 lakh in her provident fund account and owns a building on an area of 650 square yards in Punjagutta area of Hyderabad. She also owns an estate on an area of 2.3 acres near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Naidu's son Lokesh's assets include five acres of land in Madinaguda near Hyderabad, 8.4 acres of agriculture land at Shogun village of Raigad district in Maharashtra, 3.17 acre of land worth Rs 60.54 lakh land at Emra village in Hubli district in Karnataka. He also had an investment of Rs 2.52 crore in different companies.

Naidu's daughter-in-law Brahmini (daughter of Telugu film actor N Balakrishna) owns assets of Rs 3.22 crore including 924 square yards of land in Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad (worth Rs 3.37 lakh), 778 square yards of land in Nandini Hills of Hyderabad worth Rs 4.79 lakh, advance payment of Rs 1.15 crore towards a house in Emaar ventures, 1,290 grams of gold worth Rs 67.4 lakh.

Naidu said that all political leaders should declare their assets to restore their credibility. "I did nothing wrong during my 32-year long career," Naidu said. He was in power in Andhra Pradesh from 1995 till 2004. He pointed out that the Congress government had set up many commissions to probe his assets but did not find any ill doings.

However, some political opponents have raised questions about the correct value of his assets. Former minister and Congress leader J C Divaka Reddy said that Naidu was not being truthful in declaring his assets. "One example is enough to prove this. How he can say his house in Jubilee Hills was worth only Rs 23 lakh," he asked.