K'taka bypolls: Disqualified MLA Nagaraj grew richer by Rs 185 crore in 18 months!

Bengaluru: Disqualified MLA and BJP candidate from Hoskote MTB Nagaraj submitted his election affidavit to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).

The election affidavit of MTB Nagaraj disclosed the net worth of over Rs 1201 crores, including himself and his wife.

The disclosure made shows that he has added Rs 185 crore to his wealth in just 18 months, as he declared assets worth over Rs 1,015 crore during the previous Assembly elections in 2018.

This year, his movable assets are Rs 419,28 crore, while his wife is of Rs 167.34 crore. A comparison of Nagaraj’s affidavits filed in 2018 and 2019 show that his movable assets increased by Rs 104.53 crore. His wife, Shanthakumari’s movable assets increased by Rs 44.95 crore.

Nagaraj has made 25.84 per cent of this wealth over six days in August, just a fortnight after he helped the fall of the coalition government which was led by HD Kumaraswamy.

Fifteen out of the 17 constituencies represented by these MLAs will be going for by-polls, while by-elections to Maski and RR Nagar constituencies have been withheld as separate cases with regard to them, are pending before the high court.

Sixteen out of the 17 disqualified Congress-JD(S) legislators on Thursday joined the BJP in Bengaluru in the presence of Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa and its state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and National General Secretary in charge of the state P Muralidhar Rao.

All the 13 disqualified MLAs have been repeated from their respective seats.