Naidu's assets declaration backfires

Hyderabad: Has Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu made a strategic mistake by declaring his assets and those of his family? The answer appears so, going by the strong reactions his move has evoked. Though he thought the declaration of assets would get him a clean image and prove his integrity, it completely backfired on him.

Leave alone his political rivals, even the common people are ridiculing his claims that he and his family possessed assets worth only Rs 40 crore. But going by the market value of these assets, Naidu and his family are worth over a whopping Rs 1,100 crore.

Take for instance, according to his declaration, his 1120 sq. yard residential house in posh Jubilee Hills was shown to be worth only Rs 23.20 lakh.

But in the declaration he had made before the Election Commission during the 2009 elections, the value of the house was shown as Rs 8.5 crore. It must be worth around Rs 12 crore now.

Similarly, his son Mr Lokesh has five acres of land at Madinaguda near Kukatpally, which is now worth not less than Rs 25 crore. The cost of the 650 sq yard plot owned by his wife Ms Bhuvaneshwari at Panjagutta was shown as Rs 70 lakh, but it is not less than Rs 3 crore.

Similarly, the 50,000 sq ft land at Siriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu also costs not less than Rs 10 crore. One can imagine the value of other assets, shares and investments owned by Naidu family.

'In fact, Naidu messed up his own image by declaring his assets. Had he not done so, there would not have been so many questions except for the old allegations. In his eagerness to prove himself as a clean politician, Naidu only exposed himself,' a group of Congress party leaders, MLAs and MLCs observed.

At a news conference here, Mr Rudraraju Padma Raju, Mr Bhupal Reddy, Mr Bhanu Prasad, Mr Gandra Venkatarama Reddy and Mr Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the TDP chief had many more properties all over the State and their list was yet to be made public. The worth of his benami holdings would be many times more than what he had declared so far, they alleged.

The Congress leaders said that Mr Naidu was one of the richest politicians in the country. His assets declaration was only a ploy to legitimise the properties in the name of his family. No politician had ever declared the purchase value of his assets.

If he wanted to project himself to be next to Mr Anna Hazare in his integrity, he must come out with second list of his properties, they said.
'We welcome Naidu's gesture, but it should have the public acceptance', they said.

There could be very few in his own party to give any credence to his declaration of assets, not to speak of the opposition parties. The net worth of the assets owned by the TDP Chief and his family must be assessed properly, they demanded.

People are taking the declaration of assets made by Mr Naidu with a pinch of salt, according to the YSRC Party leader Gattu Ramachandra Rao.

He said the benami holdings of the TDP chief were galore. He should come out with facts on the real extent of lands in his possession, otherwise a CBI enquiry should be ordered into his assets. It was ridiculous to put the value of Naidu and his family at Rs 40 crore, he added.