Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and the state’s deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar is the richest MLA in the country with assets worth Rs 1,413 crore, according to a report from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).
That’s not all. Karnataka MLAs dominate the list of richest MLAs in the country with 12 in the top 20. ADR report says that 14 % of the Karnataka MLAs are billionaires (worth Rs 100 crore), the highest in the country, and the average assets of the legislators is Rs 64. 3 crore.
In the list, the top three slots are taken by Karnataka MLAs. The second richest is an independent legislator and businessman — KH Puttaswamy Gowda—from Gauribidanur, which is 80km from Bengaluru. Gowda is valued at Rs 1,267 crore and has liabilities of a mere Rs 5 crore.
The third richest is the youngest Congress MLA in the Karnataka assembly, Priyakrishna. The 39-year-old has declared assets of Rs 1,156 crore. The advocacy group has analysed 4,001 sitting MLAs from 28 assemblies and two UTs. Overall, the poorest MLA in India is Nirmal Kumar Dhara from Indus constituency in West Bengal with an asset of Rs 1,700 and no liabilities.
The poorest MLA who was elected to the Karnataka legislative assembly is BJP’s Bhagirathi Murulya, who has declared assets of Rs 28 lakh and Rs 2 lakh of liabilities.
In his 2023 affidavit, filed before the Election Commission, Shivakumar had disclosed that he has a total of Rs 273 crore in immovable assets and Rs 1,140 crore in movable assets.
Shivakumar’s liabilities are Rs 265 crore, while Gowda has Rs 990 crore in immovable assets and Rs 276 crore in movable assets.
Interestingly, Priyakrishna also holds the record in the list of legislators from across the country for having the highest liabilities with Rs 881 crore. His father, M Krishnappa, featured on the list of top billionaires in Karnataka at number 18.
The other MLA from Karnataka who is on the list is mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy at number 23. Most of Reddy’s assets are declared in the name ofhis wife, Aruna Lakshmi, who also contested the 2023 assembly polls with their new party, Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP).
Most billionaires elected
Karnataka, in the recent assembly polls, elected the highest number of billionaires in the country, with 32 of them having assets over Rs 100 crore. Barring the 19 from Congress, the other billionaires include nine from the BJP, two from JD(S), one from KRPP, and one independent.
At the other end, the Karnataka legislature has also recorded a considerable “gain” in terms of the legislators elected, with 62% of the 224 legislators in the state being either graduates (50%) or postgraduates (12%).