According to the report, only two winning candidates have declared assets less than Rs 50 lakh, ten between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, 31 between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore, and 180 above Rs 5 crore.
In the newly elected Karnataka Legislative Assembly, 97 per cent of winning candidates are crorepatis and their average declared assets are worth Rs 64.39 crore, according to an analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms.
“Out of the 223 winning candidates analysed, 217 (97 per cent) are crorepatis. Out of the 221 MLAs analysed after the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2018, 215 (97 per cent) were crorepatis,” the report, which analysed the criminal background; financial status; education; gender and other details of the winners, said.
The average assets of the MLAs saw a rise of nearly Rs 30 crore from Rs 34.59 crore in 2018 to Rs 64.39 crore in 2013.
For the Congress, 132 of its 134 winners analysed (Congress won 135 seats) are crorepatis with an average declared wealth of Rs 67.13 crore. As for the BJP, 63 of its 66 winners have assets over one crore, with an average wealth of Rs 44.36 crore. As many as 18 of the 19 Janata Dal (Secular) winners are crorepatis with an average wealth of Rs 46.01 crore.
According to the report, only two winning candidates have declared assets less than Rs 50 lakh, ten between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, 31 between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore, and 180 above Rs 5 crore.
Chief ministership aspirant D K Shivakumar is the richest winning candidate, with assets worth Rs 1,413 crore, followed by K H Puttuswamy, the independent from Gauribidanur, with Rs 1,267 crore.
The winning candidate with the lowest asset is the BJP’s Bhagirathi Murulya, from Sullia, with Rs 28 lakh. Another BJP winner, T S Srivatsa, from Krishnaraja, is second from bottom in the list of richest winning candidates, with Rs 48 lakh.
A total of 93 MLAs — 51 from the Congress, 38 from the BJP and four from the JD(S) — were re-elected. Their average wealth increased from Rs 29.03 crore to Rs 71.52 crore from Rs 42.48 crore in 2018. The assets of re-elected MLAs have seen an average increase of 68 per cent.
Criminal cases
Around a third of the winning candidates, 71, have declared serious criminal cases in their poll affidavits. Of the 134 in Congress, 40 (30 per cent) have declared serious criminal offences. For the BJP, 23 of the 66 (35 per cent) winners have such cases, and seven of the 19 (37 per cent) JD(S) winners are accused in serious criminal cases. There are 51 other winning candidates with cases non-serious in nature, for a total of 122 (50 per cent) with declared criminal cases against them.
Congress’s Darshan Dhruvaranarayan, 28, from the Nanjangud constituency, is the youngest winning candidate. He is the son of former Karnataka Congress working president R Dhruvanarayan, who died during campaigns ahead of polls in March this year. Darshan lost his mother Veena a month later.
Bangalore Rural winner Dheeraj Muniraju, 31, of the BJP, is second on the list of youngest winning candidates.
The senior most candidate to win is the Congress’s 91-year-old Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who won for the sixth time. G Hampayya Nayak, 84, also of the Congress, is second on the list.
