YSRCP’s ‘poor’ candidate owns assets of Rs 161 crore

Amaravati: YSRCP candidate from Yemmiganur Assembly constituency, Butta Renuka, who was recently called ‘poor’ by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has declared family assets of Rs 161.21 crore.

The former MP declared the assets in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission while filing a nomination for the May 13 election to the Assembly constituency in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

According to the affidavit, she and her husband Shiva NeelKanth have movable assets of Rs.142.46 crore and immovable assets of Rs.18.75 crore. Their liabilities are to the tune of Rs.7.82 crore.

The businesswoman owns automobile dealerships, hotels and educational institutions. She also owns the Butta Convention.

Her assets include plots and buildings in the Madhapur and Izzat Nagar areas of Hyderabad.

In 2014, she was one of the richest parliamentarians with declared assets of Rs.242.62 crore.

She was elected from the Kurnool Lok Sabha constituency as a YSRCP candidate, defeating her nearest rival B. T. Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) by a margin of over 44,000 votes. In 2017, she crossed over to TDP, the then-ruling party.

A few weeks before the 2019 elections, Butta Renuka returned to YSRCP as the TDP had given the Kurnool ticket to Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy.

Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, while addressing a public meeting in Kurnool recently as part of the party’s poll campaign, had stated that her assets are limited.

“It is deplorable that Mr. Jagan had tried to project Butta Renuka as a poor woman even though her assets stood at Rs. 250 crore,” TDP President and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had said.