BangaloreVotes

The second phase of Assembly Elections in Karnataka on May 16 will witness 49 candidates with criminal records contesting across 66 Assembly segments.

The BJP leads the list with 13 candidates, followed by the Congress -9, JD(S) -8, BSP -7 and others -12. Of these, six have been charged with murder or attempt to murder, with the BJP accounting for three and the JD(S), BSP and JD(U), one each.

The Karnataka Election Watch Committee, based on a study of the affidavits submitted by candidates during filing of nominations, revealed these findings on Sunday.

Releasing the report, Trilochan Sastry of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, said that the longterm strategy of the Committee is to pressure political parties to field clean candidates.

Crorepatis in the fray

The financial assets of candidates in general, has also seen a tremendous increase. Five candidates, two from the BJP and three from the Congress, have declared assets of over Rs 30 crore, coming under the ‘Very High’ category.

Bellary City constituency candidate Anil H Lad tops the list with assets worth Rs 172.72 crore, followed by Haliyal candidate R V Deshpande with Rs 116.29 crore. The list is rounded off with Vijayanagara candidate Anand Singh (Rs 74.56 crore), Davangere South candidate S Shivashankarappa (Rs 50.15 crore) and Harappanahalli candidate G Karunakara Reddy (Rs 34.06 crore).

Under the ‘High Assets’ category (Rs 5 crore to Rs 30 crore), there are 17 candidates contesting the second phase. A total of 46 candidates have declared very low assets of Rs 1 lakh or less. The total assets declared by all 372 candidates is Rs 902 crore, with average candidate assets of Rs 2.42 crore.

The Congress leads the list with total declared candidate assets of Rs 470 crore and average candidate assets of Rs 7.35 crore.

The BJP had total assets of Rs 249.8 crore and an average of Rs 3.78 crore and the JD(S) Rs 77.9 crore and Rs 1.28 crore.


Source: The New Indian Express