From owner of a small brick kiln to wealthiest legislator

BENGALURU: Congress MLA N Nagaraju, who represents Hoskote constituency, is the richest MLA in the country going by a study conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
Nagaraju’s is a rags-to-riches story. He began with a brick business which he operated from a rented shed and is now owner of several residential and commercial properties besides a fleet of luxury cars including a Porsche, Benz and Toyota Prado.

Nagaraju, 67, has not studied beyond middle school, but he turned every adversity into an opportunity. In early 2000, he began his own brick manufacturing unit — Manjunatha Table Bricks (MTB). The MLA is now popularly known as MTB Nagaraju and his company is among the top three brick companies in Bengaluru.

He launched the company by converting a small shed into a factory. Today, he runs a dozen small scale industries, wedding halls (choultries) and commercial establishments. His business model was to construct buildings and rent it. Sources say he and his wife still earn lakhs of rupees in rent. A Kuruba, he has dedicated a temple in Garudacharpalya to Lord Manjunatha.

In the 2013 assembly elections, Nagaraju declared assets worth Rs 709 crore. His wife, M Shanthakumari, had assets worth Rs 197 crore. The MLA’s assets have almost doubled since then. In his affidavit filed for the 2018 assembly elections, Nagaraju had declared assets worth Rs 1,015 crore and his liability is around Rs 200 crore.

Nagaraju declared that he is an agriculturalist and a businessman. In February 2017, the I-T department had conducted a raid at Nagaraju’s palatial bungalow in Mahadevpura, Bengaluru. During the raid, I-T sleuths claimed that he had undeclared income worth Rs 120 crore and had also found new Rs 2000 notes and Rs 100 notes worth Rs 1.1 crore. A case is still pending against him.