Karnataka polls: 391 candidates facing criminal cases; 883 crorepatis; BJP No.1 in both

Bengaluru, May 7: Out of the 2560 candidates in the Karnataka elections fray, 391 have self-declared criminal cases against them while 254 of them have “serious criminal cases” in their names.  A total of 883 candidates are crorepatis, including 208 from the BJP and 207 from Congress.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Karnataka Election Watch have analysed affidavits of 2560 candidates out of the 2655 and released a report days ahead of the May 12 elections.

The analysis shows that four candidates have declared cases related to murder (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code). As many as 23 candidates are facing cases related to crimes against women.

The ADR report says, among all major parties contesting the elections, BJP has the most number of candidates with criminal cases, followed by Congress and JD(S).

Out of the 224 BJP candidates, 83 or 37% have criminal cases of varied degrees against them while 59 or 27% of the 220 candidates from Congress have similar cases in their names.

JD(S) has 41 such candidates among its 199 contenders while Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), too, has 5 candidates out of its 25, with criminal records. Five of AAP’s candidates too have such dubious records while 108 out of the 1,090 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Again, in the “serious criminal cases” category too, BJP has the maximum number of candidates with such offences followed by Congress and JD(S).

Among major parties, 58 BJP candidates have serious criminal records while 32 of 220 Congress candidates and 29 JD(S) candidates similar records.

The ADR has also declared 56 Karnataka seats as “red alert constituencies” where there are at least 3 candidates in the poll fray with declared criminal records.

The percentage of crorepatis in the BJP has jumped from 72% in 2013 to 93%. In the Congress, the number went up from 88% to 94%, though affidavits of two candidates were yet to be analysed. The JD(S) has 77% crorepatis, as against 70% in 2013.

Harish Narasappa, state coordinator of KEW, said heads of the political parties seem to be giving more importance to the candidates’ money power rather than their leadership qualities or parliamentary knowledge. “It seems they think 15 such (knowledgeable leaders) are enough to lead party and pick the rest among those who can supply money,” he said.