The 184 MLAs who are recontesting the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 12 have seen a 64 per cent growth in their assets as compared to the 2013 elections, an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits showed on Tuesday.
The five richest, who saw more than Rs 100 crore addition in their wealth since the last elections, come from the ruling Congress party, a report by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed.
The average assets of these 184 re-contesting MLAs from various parties, including independent MLAs, in 2013 was Rs 26.92 crore, which have grown to Rs 44.24 crore now. This shows an increase of Rs 17.31 crore in the average assets.
The five richest MLAs in the fray, who saw more than Rs 100 crore increase in their assets include D.K. Shivakumar, N. Nagaraju, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, Priyakrishna and Deshpande Raghunath Vishwanath -- all from the Congress.
Shivakaumar had declared assets worth Rs 251 crore in 2013, which grew to Rs 840 crore now, an increase of Rs 588 crore (or 234 per cent).
Nagaraju had declared assets worth Rs 470 crore in 2013, which have now grown up to Rs 1,015 crore (116 per cent rise). Shivashankarappa's assets worth Rs 67 crore in last elections have increased to Rs 183 crore (170 per cent rise).
Priyakrishna had assets worth Rs 910 crore in 2013 which have now become Rs 1,020 crore (12 per cent rise) while Vishwanath's assets have risen from Rs 113 crore in the last polls to Rs 215 crore now (or 89 per cent).
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The 108 recontesting MLAs of the Congress have seen an average of 66 per cent rise in their assets since 2013 while the 49 recontesting MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have seen an average increase of 65 per cent in their assets.
The 24 recontesting MLAs of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) have seen an increase of 50 per cent in their assets, the analysis showed.
--IANS
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