Karnataka polls: BJP fields 83 candidates with criminal cases against them, Congress 59

Of the 2,654 candidates in the fray for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, at least 883 are crorepatis and 645 have criminal cases against them, as per Association for Democratic Reforms.

Representational image

Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tops the list, with Congress at the second position in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background in the Karnataka Assembly elections, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The ADR released the report after analysing the affidavits filed by 2,560 candidates, which said that 391 candidates declared criminal cases against themselves.

83 (37 percent) of the 223 BJP candidates in the fray have criminal cases against them and 58 others (26 percent) having serious criminal cases against them including murder.

Of the 220 candidates analysed from the ruling Congress, a total of 59 (27 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, while 32 (15 percent) have serious criminal cases against them.

Of the 199 Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) candidates analysed by ADR, 41 (21 percent) have criminal cases and 29 (15 percent) have declared serious criminal cases in their poll affidavits. Of the total 1,090 Independents analysed, 108 (10 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves and 70 (6 percent) are accused of serious criminal charges.

As per the report, "out of the 2560 candidates analysed, 391(15%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 254 (10%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. 4 candidates have declared case related to murder (Indian Penal Code section - 302) against themselves. 25 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC section-307) against themselves. 23 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women such as assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC section - 354), word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (IPC section -509) and cohabitation caused by man deceitfully including a belief of lawful marriage (IPC section 493), husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC section - 498A) etc."

Two hundred and eight (93 percent) of the 223 candidates in fray from the BJP have declared assets worth over Rs 1 crore, the highest number among all the parties contesting. A total of 207 (94 percent) of the 220 candidates from the ruling Congress, 154 (77 percent) of the 199 candidates from JD(S) and 199 (18 percent) of the 1,090 Independents have declared assets more than Rs 1 crore.

The top three candidates with highest assets among all the candidates in fray belong to the ruling 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 DK Shivakumar from Kanakapura segment with Rs 840 crore assets.

Of the total candidates, the watchdogs could not analyse details of 95 candidates belonging to national, regional, local and fringe parties, as their affidavits were badly scanned or were incomplete on the websites of the poll panel and the Chief Electoral Officer of the southern state.

Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 and votes will be counted on May 15.