Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator Pemmasani Chandrasekhar Sunday took oath as a minister in the Narendra Modi Council of Ministers, at the swearing-in ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. He is the richest MP among the 543 elected representatives. Two MPs from TDP were administered the oath of office Sunday alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the BJP not being able to get a majority on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party has had to depend heavily on two key NDA partners TDP and JDU.
Apart from Guntur MP Pemmasani, TDP's K Ram Mohan Naidu took oath Sunday.
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Pemmasani Chandrasekhar Is The Richest MP
Based on the details disclosed by candidates while filing nominations for the Lok Sabha elections, TDP leader Pemmasani Chandrasekhar is the wealthiest MP in the 18th Lok Sabha Following him is BJP leader Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, from another Telugu state Telangana.
As per his election affidavit, Pemmasani has declared assets worth ₹5,705 crore. He is a medical doctor and has assets worth over ₹2,000 crores in his own name. His wife Koneru Srirathna has assets worth over ₹2,000 crore in her name, while son Abhinav and daughter Sahasra have around ₹500 crore each.
How Did Pemmasani Chandrasekhar Accumulate the Wealth?
Pemmasani Chandrasekhar has explained in some interviews how he acquired such wealth. According to an ABP Desam report, he was born in a middle-class family in Burri Palem, near Tenali. He secured a seat at Osmania University in 1993-94 to study medicine. He moved abroad after that and started some business, before shifting to the US in 2000, where he worked as a medical teaching faculty at Johns Hopkins University for the next five years.
According to the ABP Desam report, Pemmasani would prepare medical notes and offer them to students at "low prices". As his notes gained "popularity", he founded the ed-tech platform UWorld, providing licensing exam training for nursing, pharmacy, law, business, and accounting. He established the Pemmasani Foundation, offering free medical services to NRIs.