Bengaluru: Energy minister D K Shivakumar and Vijayanagar MLA Anand Singh are the richest among the 216 candidates who filed nominations on Thursday.

Shivakumar has declared assets worth Rs 840 crore, nearly Rs 600 crore more than what he had declared in 2013, according to his affidavit filed before the returning officer at Kanakapura. He has liabilities of Rs 228 crore.

Shivakumar’s possessions include a Rolex watch worth Rs 9 lakh, Rs 1.26 crore worth jewellery, including 321 grams of diamonds and 21grams rubies and 2 kg gold worth Rs 18 lakh. But he owns only one four-wheeler: a Toyota Qualis worth Rs 8.35 lakh. Anand Singh owns 19 vehicles, including a BMW and 3 Benz cars and one Land Rover, besides a cruise ship.

According to a Association for Democratic Reforms report, in 2016, Shivakumar was the second richest minister in India, after Andhra Pradesh minister Ponguru Narayana who had assets worth Rs 441 crore.

Ironically, Shivakumar on Thursday sought contributions from people to raise his deposit money of Rs 10,000 to be paid with his nomination. He also met controversial Swami Nityananda at his ashram near Bidadi before filing his papers.

Anand Singh, whose name figured in the illegal mining scam, is worth Rs 117.5 crore as per his affidavit. Among those who filed their nominations were Congress ’ R V Devraj (Chickpet), BJP ’s K S Eshwarappa (Shivamogga city), R Ashoka (Padmanbhanagar), Murugesh Nirani (Bilagi), and JD(S)’ Madhu Bangarappa (Sorab).

Ministers in Siddaramaiah government T B Jayachandra ( Sira ), K R Ramesh Kumar (Srinivaspur), Ramanath Rai (Bantwal) and A Manju (Arkalgud) too filed their nominations.

