45 of them are in the fray; Surendra Babu of JD(S) is the richest of them all

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K.H. Muniyappa’s assets shot from from Rs. 62 lakh to Rs. 5.19 crore
Suresh Angadi is richer at Rs. 16.43 crore as against
Rs. 4.71 cr. in 2004

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Bangalore: Money is more than ever before the fuel that powers the electoral process in Karnataka. The number of crorepatis in race here is higher than the national average, and the assets of MPs who are contesting again has seen an upswing too.

A study by the National Election Watch (NEW) on the financial and criminal background of candidates from Karnataka shows that there are 45 crorepatis in the race in Karnataka. That makes 24.9 per cent of the total contestants, which is markedly higher than the national average of 14 per cent. This may just be the tip of an iceberg considering that it takes into account only the declared assets presented to the Election Commission.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress share the top slot of the crorepati list with 12 candidates each, followed by the Janata Dal (Secular) at eight. As many as six independents are in the list of crorepatis. The top five corepatis in the race are: Suredra Babu R (JD-S) with Rs. 108 crore followed by Captain G.R. Gopinath (Independent), C. Aswathanarayana (BJP), H.D. Kumaraswamy (JD-S) and Angadi Suresh Channabasappa (BJP). Interestingly, Mr. Babu heads the list of candidates with the highest assets as well as liabilities.

Rise in assets The study has analysed the assets of 13 MLAs who got elected in 2008 and are contesting in the Lok Sabha elections. Within one year, their declared assets have shown a rise of 39 per cent.

The study says the assets of MPs who are seeking re-election has seen marked rise from 2004 to 2009: Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada): Rs. 12 lakh to Rs 64 lakh; Ananth Kumar (Bangalore South) Rs. 70 lakh to Rs. 122 lakh, K.H. Muniyappa (Kolar) Rs. 62 lakh to Rs. 519 lakh, Tejasvini Gowda (Bangalore Rural) Rs. 17 lakh to Rs. 73 lakh, H.T. Sangliana (Bangalore Central) Rs. 77 lakh to Rs. 255 lakh, Jigajinagi Ramesh Chandappa (Bijapur) Rs. 55 lakh to Rs. 118 lakh and Angadi Suresh Channabasappa (Belgaum) Rs. 471 lakh to Rs. 1,643 lakh.

NEW has expressed concern over what it calls “continuing criminalisation of politics”.