A doctor with assets abroad and home, TDP’s Guntur candidate at Rs 5,705 crore is richest in fray so far

Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, 48, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate for the Guntur Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh that goes to polls on May 13, is the richest contestant in these polls so far, with his family owning assets worth Rs 5,705 crore. Pemmasani is set to make his poll debut in these elections.

A medical doctor who completed his MBBS from the Dr NTR University of Health Sciences in 1999, Pemmasani went to receive an MD in internal medicine from the Geisinger Medical Centre in Pennsylvania, USA, in 2005. While he is settled abroad, TDP leaders said that he visits his native place “regularly”.

Incidentally, in Guntur, Pemmasani replaces another rich candidate of the TDP — Galla Jayadev, the MD of Amara Raja Group who had declared assets worth Rs 680 crore in 2019 and announced his retirement from politics ahead of the elections.

TDP leader Pattbhi Ram Reddy, seen as close to Pemmasani, claimed that he and his family, hailing from Burripalem village of Tenali, have been supporters of the party for a long time, and that his father who owned a business in Narasaropet was also a TDP leader. Calling him “a very successful and renowned doctor”, the leader said: “Pemmasani has developed a curriculum for students appearing for medical entrance tests in the US and helped in developing some apps and software for students.”

Pemmasani developed UWorld – an online learning service that helps students prepare for exams like the SAT, MCAT and United States Medical Licensing Examination — when just 25 and working at Johns Hopkins University. In 2020, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Pemmasani remains the CEO of UWorld

In Narasaopet, Pemmasani is well-known for philanthropic activities such as constructing