Surge in number of newly elected Karnataka MLAs with serious criminal cases, BJP tops the list

There is a surge in the number of newly elected MLAs facing serious criminals cases with BJP topping the list with 42, followed by Congress 23, while their average wealth too has swollen, compared to the previous Karnataka assembly.

Data released by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Karnataka Election Watch shows 77 of the 221 MLAs analysed have declared criminal cases against them.

Of them, 54 face serious criminal cases, relating to attempt to murder, cheating, forgery and kidnapping.

Four MLAs have accepted that there are attempt to murder cases pending against them, ADR and Karnataka Election Watch said in a release.

BJP leads with 42 of its MLAs facing criminalcases, followed by 23 of Congress and 11 JD(S) MLAs.

The saffron party is also ahead of others with 29 of its legislators facing serious criminal cases against them.

Congress and JD(S) have 12 and eight MLAs facing serious criminal cases, according to the release.

In terms of wealth, 215 of 221 newly elected MLAsare crorepatis, up from 203 in the previousassembly.

Party wise, most of the wealthy are in BJP, with 101of its MLAs declaring that they are crorepatis.

Congress has77 and JD(S) 35 crorepati MLAs.

The lone MLA ofthe newly floated Karnataka Pranyavantha Janata Party too has declared assets of more than Rs one crore.

However, all the three richest MLAs are fromCongress.

N Nagaraju, elected from Hoskote, hasassets of about Rs 1,016 crore, followed by KanakapuraMLA D K Shivakumar with Rs 840 crore andHebbal MLA Suresh B S, Rs 416 crore.

Assets comparison of 94 re-elected MLAs has thrown up someastonishing details.

There has been a meteoric rise in the wealth of Chitradurga BJP MLA G H Thippa Reddy, from Rs nine crore in 2013 to Rs 48 crore in 2018, an increase of 418 per cent.

He is followed by Congress MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, whose wealth has shot up from Rs nine crore as JD(S) MLA in 2013 to Rs 40 crore in 2018 - a surge of 327 per cent.

In the last five years,the assets of D K Shivakumar,who served as energy minister previously, surged by more than251 per cent from Rs 251 crore in 2013 to Rs 840 crore in 2018.

Hoskote MLA N Nagaraju's wealth swelled from Rs 470 crore in 2013 to Rs 1,015 crore now, an increase of 116 per cent.

Davangere MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa's wealth grew from Rs 67.83 crore to Rs 183 crore in 2018 - a surge of 170 per cent.

Other legislators posting astounding increase in assets are Congress MLAs R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, N H Shivashankara Reddy, Dr K Sudhakar and S R Srinivas, revealed thedata.

However four MLAs have posted negative growth -- B Sriramulu and S R Vishwanath (both BJP) and Congress MLAs SatishJarkiholi and Arbail Hebbar Shivaram.

The average asset of these MLAs this year is Rs 34.59 crore, which was Rs 23.54 crore in 2013 and Rs 10.05 crore in 2008, it said.

The MLA with least wealth is BJP's S A Ramadas, who has declared that he has just Rs 39lakh.

Two other non-crorepati elected MLAs areSrirangapatna JD(S) MLA A S Ravindra with Rs 68 lakh and BSP's Kollegal MLA N Mahesh, who has assets of about Rs 75 lakh.

In terms of liabilities, D K Shivakumar is on top.

He has a liability of Rs 228 crore with disputed liabilities of Rs 5.8crore.

He is followed by JD(S) second in command H D Kumaraswamy, who has a liability of about Rs 105 crore.

The Vijayanagar Congress MLA M Krishnappa ranks third with liabilities of Rs 66.45 crore.

There are 135 new MLAs who are graduates and above while 80 MLAs have said their education qualification ranges from Class 5 to Class 12.

One MLA has not given his educational qualification in his affidavit while another has declared he is just literate.

The new elected body has three MLAs above the age of 80, while 64 are between the age group of 61 to 80.

There are 138MLAs who are within the age of 41 and 60 and as many as 16MLAs aged between 25 and 40.

Pointing to the huge gender gap, only seven of 221MLAs are women.