Mixed fortune for industrialists from Telangana in Lok Sabha polls

Newly elected Lok Sabha members from Telangana include entrepreneurs and business associates, with Konda Vishweshwar Reddy emerging as a popular figure.

At least three of the newly elected Lok Sabha members from Telangana are entrepreneurs or associated, through their families, with businesses, including some well known in their respective fields.

Konda Vishweshwar Reddy of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was declared the winner with 8,09,882 votes in his favour from the Chevella Lok Sabha constituency, is arguably the most popular of them. An engineer by qualification, IT entrepreneur Mr. Reddy, who will be making it to the Lok Sabha for the second time, hails from an illustrious family and through his wife is also related to the Apollo Hospitals group, a well-known name in the field of healthcare.

He was the richest candidate from Telangana with declared movable and immovable assets worth ₹ 4,568 crore in his, wife K. Sangita Reddy and son K. Viraj Madhav Reddy’s names. Interestingly, Mr. Reddy’s close opponent in the polls was also an industrialist G. Ranjith Reddy of the Indian National Congress and a leader of the poultry industry. He lost to Mr. Vishweshwar Reddy by 1,72,897 votes.

Among the first ones to be declared winner from Telangana, in the counting on Tuesday, was Vamsi Krishna Gaddam of Indian National Congress from the Peddapalli constituency who, according to the Election Commission of India, bagged 4,75,587 votes and won with a margin of 1,31,364 votes. He belongs to the promoter group of Visaka Industries and comes from a family of politicians, including his grandfather who was a Union Minister. Among those in the fray against him were Srinivas Gomase of BJP and Eshwar Koppula of Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

Another representative of the poultry industry in the polls is Eatala Rajender of BJP who won the Malkajgiri constituency by bagging 9,91,042 votes and winning with a margin of 3,91,475 votes. Luck, however, did not favour another businessman and Bharat Rashtra Samithi candidate from the Mahbubnagar constituency Manne Srinivas Reddy, who polled 1,54,792 votes and was placed third.

Another candidate with business interests in the healthcare sector who lost was Madhavi Latha Kompella, the BJP candidate for Hyderabad constituency.

Meanwhile, industry bodies and frontline industrialists from the State were yet to react to the Lok Sabha election results.