Voila! Muniratna’s assets doubled in just two years

BENGALURU: A businessman, film producer and landlord, the BJP’s candidate for Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly constituency, Muniratna’s self-declared assets grew over 100 per cent in just the last two years. According to Muniratna’s election affidavit filed on Wednesday, the 56-year-old has valued his personal movable assets at Rs 26,11,16,191 (Rs 26.11 crore) while the market value of immovable properties is Rs 51,91,97,400 (Rs 51.91 crore). These numbers are excluding assets owned by his spouse.

In 2018, when Muniratna contested as a Congress candidate from the same constituency, he had valued his movable assets at Rs 8,71,87,341 (Rs 8.71 crore) and immovable assets at Rs 27,94,48,400 (Rs 27.94 crore). In two years, his self-declared assets have jumped from Rs 36,66,35,741 (Rs 36.66 crore) in 2018 to Rs 78,03,13,591 (Rs 78.03 crore) in 2020, a huge hike of 112 per cent. Not just assets, the number of criminal cases against Muniratna too increased from three in 2018 to five in 2020.

Congress’ Sira candidate T B Jayachandra’s assets have gone up from Rs 13,05,92,204 (Rs 13.05 crore) to Rs 14,43,81,409 (Rs 14.4 crore). Jayachandra has two criminal cases pending against him. Candidates from all three major political parties — the BJP, the Congress and the JDS — have filed their nominations for the bypolls to the Sira and Rajarajeshwari Nagar assembly seats. BJP’s Sira candidate Dr Rajesh Gowda, however, has not filed his affidavits detailing assets, liabilities, etc. 

BJP candidate Rajesh Gowda yet to file affidavit

With Friday (October 16) being the last date to file nominations, Rajesh Gowda has time before filing his affidavit. Congress’ debutante candidate from Rajarajeshwari Nagar, H Kusuma, has valued the movable assets owned by her at Rs 1,13,02,197 and immovable assets at Rs 1,37,10,000. An MS graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Kusuma has no criminal cases against her.The JDS’s candidates in Sira and Rajarajeshwari Nagar have shown agriculture as their sources of income. 

Ammajamma, the Sira candidate and wife of late legislator B Satyanarayana, has valued movable assets in her possession at Rs 85,85,774 and immovable assets at Rs 2,32,54,784. The party’s candidate in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Krishnamurthy V, has declared movable assets in his personal possession at Rs 16,01,066 and immovable assets at Rs 18,03,36,500. Krishnamurthy has not declared any IT returns in the last five years, according to his affidavit.