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DK Shivakumar is the country’s richest MLA

The Congress secured 135 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, pushing other parties firmly into the opposition camp. With 135 seats, the Congress had to take the support of an ally to come to power. With this, the Congress came to power in Karnataka with a thumping majority.

Congress has given tickets to 19 MLAs who are billionaires to win the Karnataka elections. According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 32 MLAs who have won the Karnataka elections are the richest in the country. These 32 MLAs have assets worth more than 100 crores.

These are the top 3 billionaire legislators of the country

Out of these 32 billionaire MLAs, only 19 Congress MLAs are there. Apart from this, 9 MLAs of BJP, 2 of JDS, 1 of KRPP and 1 MLA are independent. However, out of these 32 billionaire MLAs, the richest are 3 MLAs. In which Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar is at number one.

• In terms of immovable assets, Shivakumar has assets worth Rs 1,413 crore. Shivakumar has claimed in his 2023 election affidavit that he owns a Toyota Qualis. Apart from this, he has two most expensive wrist watches of Rolex and Hublot with 2 kg gold and 12 kg silver. He also has movable assets totaling Rs 273 crore.
• The second richest independent MLA after Shivakumar is businessman KH Puttaswamy Gowda, who represents Gauribidanur, 80 km from Bengaluru. Gowda has assets of Rs 1,267 crore and has a debt of Rs 5 crore.
• The third richest and youngest Congress MLA is Priyakrishna. He has total assets of Rs 1,156 crore. He has claimed in the election affidavit that he has immovable assets worth Rs 935 crore and movable assets worth Rs 221 crore. Surprisingly, Priyakrishna has a debt of Rs 881 crore.

Presenting its report, ADR has said that 14 percent of Karnataka's MLAs are billionaires. ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) have derived the data by studying 4,001 self-declared affidavits of 4,033 MLAs from 28 states and 2 union territories.