Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who will be contesting from Edappadi constituency in the upcoming Assembly Election has declared assets worth Rs 48 lakh in his affidavit. His wife Radha meanwhile has assets worth Rs 2.8 crore, and the assets declared under HUF (Hindu Undivided Family) stands at Rs 3.4 crore. EPS and his wife’s total assets stand at Rs 6.7 crore. Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam meanwhile declared assets worth Rs 61 lakh, and his wife Vijayalakshmi declared assets worth Rs 7.2 crore, taking their total assets to about Rs 7.8 crore.
Interestingly, both EPS and OPS have declared zero immovable assets in their own names — that is, they own no land, flat or building, according to their affidavits.
The CM has declared Rs 47.64 lakh in movable assets and his wife P Radha, whose occupation has been declared as agriculture/business, is shown to have Rs 1.04 crore in movable assets. As part of his Hindu Undivided Family, he has shown Rs 50.2 lakh. A HUF is a way of saving taxes where a family unit is created and the assets are pooled. A HUF has its own PAN and files its own tax returns — apart from that of its members.
His movable assets are up from Rs 12.83 lakh in 2016. His wife at the time had moveable assets of Rs 1.03 crore, his son P Mithun had Rs 44.4 lakh, his mother had Rs 2.5 lakh and his daughter-in-law Divya had Rs 1.51 lakh.
As part of his liabilities, the Chief Minister Palaniswami has declared a loan of Rs 15 lakh this time under his name and a loan of Rs 14.75 lakh under his wife’s name. The Chief Minister had no loans according to his 2016 affidavit.
He declared immovable assets worth Rs 1.78 crore for his wife (which includes agricultural land, non-agricultural land and a flat) and Rs 80.4 lakh as part of his HUF. In addition, the HUF also has ancestral property worth Rs 2.10 crore (also under his family), taking the HUF’s immovable assets to a little over Rs 2.9 crore.
In 2016, he had declared immovable property worth Rs 8.4 lakh and ancestral property worth Rs 1.89 crore, totalling to Rs 1.97 crore. Total immovable property that was declared in 2016, including the ancestral property and property owned by his wife, mother, son and daughter-in-law put together, stood at Rs 4.66 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who will once again be contesting from the Bodinayakanur constituency, declared a taxable income of Rs 7.74 lakh in 2019-20. This is up from Rs 5.80 lakh in 2015-16.
As far as his immovable assets go, while Panneerselvam has not shown any under his name, his wife’s immovable assets are up from Rs 98 lakh in 2016 to Rs 2.63 crore in 2021. His wife’s current immovable assets include agricultural land, of which two pieces of land were gifted by her sons.
OPS had said in his 2021 affidavit that he has movable property of Rs 61.19 lakh (which includes at-hand cash of Rs 23,500) while his wife P Vijayalakshmi has movable property worth Rs 4.57 crore. This is a steep increase for Vijayalakshmi who declared movable assets worth Rs 22.44 lakh in the affidavit submitted in 2016. That election, OPS had declared movable property worth Rs 33.20 lakh.
While OPS declared debt of Rs 25 lakh in 2016, this has increased to Rs 65.55 lakh. While his wife had no loans in 2016, this time she has listed it as Rs 2.06 crore.