Karnataka has emerged as the state with the richest MLAs in India with the top three in the country’s rich list owning assets exceeding a whopping Rs 1,000 crore.

While two of these affluent legislators are from the Congress the third has been elected as an Independent.

At the top of the list is Karnataka Congress president and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar with assets valued at a phenomenal Rs 1, 413 crore, according to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The second richest MLA is businessman is KH Puttaswamy Gowda whose assets have been valued at Rs 1,267 crore while his liabilities stand at a mere Rs 5 crore. He was elected as an Independent from the Gauribidanur constituency.

The third richest MLA is 39-year-old Priyakrishna, who is also from the Congress, has declared to the election commission that he owns assets worth Rs 1,156 crore. He was elected from the Govindraj Nagar constituency in Bengaluru district.

DK Shivakumar, who was a strong contender for the Karnataka chief minister’s post is also the main troubleshooter for the party in the state.

He was raided by the Income Tax department in 2017. According to investigative agencies, Rs 8.5 crore was seized during raids in four premises in New Delhi which were directly linked to Shivakumar. The Income Tax department had claimed to have detected unaccounted money worth over Rs 429 crore during these raids.

The Enforcement Directorate had then filed a money laundering case against DK Shivakumar based on the chargesheet filed by the Income Tax department. The ED claims to have discovered Rs 200 crore of unaccounted money held in various bank accounts.

The ED also claimed to have recovered documents pertaining to the alleged benami properties of DK Shivakumar worth more than Rs 800 crore.