‘Business has perfected me for politics’

At Rs299 crore, he is the richest of all politicians in Andhra Pradesh. But that should not come in the way of being elected an MP for a second time, says Lagadapati Rajagopal, the former chairman of the Lanco Group and Congress candidate for the Vijaywada Lok Sabha seat.

The Praja Rajyam Party chief, Mega star Chiranjeevi and chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Y Jaganmohan Reddy are a distant 2nd and 3rd respectively at Rs 88 crore and Rs 77 crore respectively. 

Knowing how to manage a business and knowing the world are advantages that an industrialist has over others, says the man who stepped down as Lanco chairman after making his political debut.  

“The whole state knows what I have. I changed my lifestyle in 2003 and started mingling with the common man,” says the 45-year-old who is pitted against the TDP’s Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan, a film producer. 

But the corporate influence is hard to miss in Rajagopal’s campaign style and his election office, the biggest of them all, on the busy Bandar Road in the city. Replete with AC suites, ante rooms, and a huge logistics map of Vijaywada and even media managers requisitioned from Lanco, it resembles nothing short of a business operation.

“It’s been a token campaign. The work was done much before elections were announced,” he says.