Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya’s assets grew by around 3,000 percent or nearly 30-fold in the last five years from nearly Rs 14 lakh in 2019 to nearly Rs 4 crore in 2024, which his associates have now called “organic growth”.
Details from Surya’s election affidavit, filed along with his nomination Thursday, showed how the 33-year-old Surya’s assets grew from little to no investments five years ago to investments in nearly 26 mutual funds.
Surya is the founding partner of Trust Law, which has offices in Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai. A close associate of the MP told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that the firm has expanded ever since it was founded in early 2019, has over six partners, 50 associates and an expanding clientele.
“As a founder and managing partner at a law firm in Bengaluru for the past seven years, Tejasvi Surya has a legitimate source of income from his law practice. Coupled with investments in Indian stocks and mutual funds, he has gained in market value by virtue of strong Indian markets that have given multifold returns to crores of systematic investors like him,” said the associate.
The associate added that there is a “difference between the taxed income and current market value of movable assets” and not understanding the difference would lead to biased or wrong conclusions.
Before 2019, Surya worked as a law associate at former Karnataka Advocate General Ashok Haranhalli’s office.
In his affidavit, Surya’s last income tax returns (2022-23) showed an income of Rs 44,13,050, up from Rs 11,91,000 in 2018-19.
Surya has shown Rs 80,000 cash in hand and deposits worth over Rs 5.19 lakh. He has also shown Rs 25,000 in an election expenses account in Bengaluru.
A total of 358 candidates have filed nomination papers from the three major political parties — BJP, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) — for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections to be held on April 26.
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‘No car, property or loans’
Surya has made investments in several mutual funds, his election affidavit showed. His mutual funds (MF) portfolio includes funds in private banks and companies like Kotak, HDFC, Axis, UTI, SBI, Canara, ICICI, Tata, etc. His MF portfolio stands at Rs 1.99 crore as of 27 March 2024.
Surya also holds shares worth nearly Rs 1.79 crore as of 27 March 2024. He is a shareholder in BSE, Tejas Networks, Strides Pharma, Indus Towers, Dredging Corporation of India, Jagsonpal Pharma, etc.
He holds the maximum number of shares, 30,000, in Mukesh Ambani-led Network 18 Media & Investments Limited, valued at Rs 26,65,500.
Surya declared only ‘movable assets’ valued at Rs 4,10,30,489.95 and no property, commercial property, vehicles, or loans under his name.
Surya’s associate said the BJP MP has spoken about the need to educate young Indians on financial literacy in schools and colleges. “Sans propaganda, it (Surya’s growth in assets) shows strong growth of the economy and capital markets under BJP, with any educated investor standing to gain from a fast-growing economy like Bharat. He has been advocating young Indians to become financially literate, start investing in capital markets, and benefit from India’s growth,” the associate added.
Karnataka elected 32 people who declared assets of over Rs 100 crore in the May 2023 assembly elections.
Surya also has three cases pending against him — two are from as recent as mid-March when he led the Hanuman Chalisa protest campaign.
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Billionaires’ state
Karnataka has seen several of its public representatives top the all-India wealth chart.
D.K. Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka and state president of Congress, is the richest MLA in India, with declared assets of Rs 1,413 crore.
After him, the second- and third-richest MLAs in the country are also from Karnataka, the data from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed.
K.H. Puttaswamy Gowda, an independent MLA, declared assets of Rs 1,267 crore. Priyakrishna, the son of former minister M. Krishnappa, declared assets of Rs 1,156 crore.
Karnataka MLAs dominate the top-20 list of richest MLAs in the country — 12 are from the southern state.
Among others, former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s family assets grew by Rs 27 crore in the past five years. The family, including his wife and a son, has total assets of just over Rs 217 crore. The former CM has listed 20 cows and over 50 sheep as part of his assets.
His brother-in-law and former director of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, Dr C.N. Manjunath, who has entered electoral politics as a BJP candidate, has assets worth Rs 98.38 crore.
Shivakumar’s brother D.K. Suresh declared assets of Rs 593 crore, registering a 75 percent increase since 2019.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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