Karnataka polls: Cong fields the richest, BJP tops list with criminal cases

The Karnataka Assembly elections, scheduled on May 12 will see all major political parties, both national and regional, battling it out for the 224 seats, including 36 reserved for Scheduled Castes and 15 for Scheduled Tribes. A look at the candidates contesting polls this year.

Ruling Congress MLAs in Karnataka are the richest politicians in the state. According to the ADR report, 883 of the 2,560 candidates, or 35 per cent, are millionaires.

Among the major parties, 93% of BJP candidates, 94% Congress, 77% JD(S), 52% JD(U), 33% AAP and 18% independent candidates have declared assets of over Rs 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate contesting the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 is Rs 7.54 crore. In comparison, the average asset per candidate contesting in the UP elections in 2017 is Rs 1.61 crore.

The top three richest candidates are Priyakrishna, from Govindarajanagar constituency with assets of Rs 1,020 crore, N Nagaraju from Hosakote Assembly seat with Rs 1,015 crore, and state energy minister D K Shivakumar, representing Kanakapura, with Rs 840 crore.

Candidates re-contesting the assembly election have witnessed a remarkable increase in their assets in the past five years -- up by at least Rs 100 crore.

Assets classification of some prominent leaders also saw a significant increase in the past five years.Assets of notable leaders re-contesting the election-

•     Chief Minister Siddaramaiah: Rs 20 crore
•     JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy: Rs 167 crore
•     BJP leader Dattatreya: Rs 17 crore
•     Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar: Rs 12 crore
•     Priyank Kharge (son of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge): Rs 14 crore

There are 17 candidates who have declared zero assets. A total of 309 (12%) of the 2,650 candidates have not declared their PAN details, while 340 candidates have not declared their sources of income, as per the their affidavits filed with the Election Commission of India.

While the educational qualifications of 1,351 candidates are between class V and class XII, 981 are graduates and 50 are unlettered. Besides, 52 candidates have declared themselves as literate, while 11 have not declared their education qualifications in the affidavits.

The BJP has the most number of candidates with criminal cases against them at 37%. About 27% of all Congress candidates have criminal cases against their names. Of the 199 JD-S candidates, 21% have criminal cases , while 108 independents or 10% of those who have filed nominations, have criminal cases against them. Of the total 224 constituencies, 56 are "Red Alert constituencies", that is, seats where three or more contesting candidates have criminal cases.