Karnataka: 58 BJP, 32 Congress Candidates Have Serious Criminal Cases Against Them, Says ADR Report

In the Karnataka elections starting from May 12 with 2,654 candidates, 883 are crorepatis and 645 have criminal cases against them. This comes after two watchdogs analysed the affidavits filed with the Election Commission.

“The average assets of the 883 (35 percent) crorepati candidates are worth Rs 7.54 crore. Of the 645 contestants, 254 (10 percent) face serious criminal cases and 391 (15 percent) face criminal cases,” revealed a study by the Karnataka Election Watch and Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) ahead of the polls in the 223 constituencies across the state, reported Financial Express.

Serious criminal cases include attempt to murder, murder, cheating and dishonesty, and criminal intimidation.

Out of all the candidates, the analysis of 95 candidates belonging to national, regional, local and fringe parties could not be done as the affidavits were poorly scanned and/or not uploaded completely on the website.

Affidavits of all the 223 candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were analysed. This revealed that almost 93% of the BJP candidates that is 208 candidates have declared asset of over Rs 1 crore. 83 candidates (37%) have criminal cases against them and 58 (26%) have serious criminal records against them.

Out of the 220 Congress candidates, 207 (94%) have declared assets over Rs 1 crore. 59 (27%) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, while 32 (15%) have serious criminal cases against them.

Of the 199 JD-S candidates 41 (21%) have criminal cases, and 29 (15%) have declared serious criminal cases in their poll affidavits. Out of the 1090 independent candidates scrutinised, 108 (10%) have declared criminal cases against themselves, and 70 (6%) are accused of serious criminal charges.

The top three candidates with the highest asset among all the candidates are from Congress. Priyakrishna, from Govindarajanagar constituency with Rs 1,020 crore worth total assets, N. Nagaraju from Hosakote Assembly seat with assets valued at Rs 1,015 crore and the state Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar from Kanakapura segment with Rs 840 crore assets.