Out of the 2,586 contesting the Karnataka elections, 581 have declared pending criminal cases against them.
Association for Democratic Reforms and the Karnataka Election Watch analysed the affidavits of the 2,586 candidates. In the 2018 candidates of the 2,560 candidates analysed, 391 had declared pending criminal cases against them.
The report also says that this year 404 have declared serious criminal cases pending against them. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 254 (10 per cent) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves, the report also says.
Party wise report:
Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,122(55 per cent) out of 221 candidates analysed from Congress, 96(43 per cent) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 70 (34 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 48 (23 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the report said.
Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,69(31 per cent) out of 221 candidates analysed from Congress, 66(30 per cent) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 52 (25 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 30 (14 per cent) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 49 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 49 candidates 1 candidate has declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376).
Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 8 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.
Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 35 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.
Red Alert Constituencies: 111(50 per cent) out of 224 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 56 (25 per cent) constituencies in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.
Financial background:
The report said that the role of money power is quite evident in the manner in which the parties have given tickets to the candidates. The crorepati candidates from the Congress is 215, while in the case of the BJP it is 170. The JD(S) has fielded 107, the report said.
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 is Rs 12.26 Crores. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 2,560 candidates was Rs. 7.54 crores.
The highest assets have been declared by independent candidate, Yousuf Shariff. In his affidavit, he has said that his assets are worth over 1,600 crore. The second and third on the list are N Nagaraju of the BJP and D K Shivakumar of the Congress. They have declared assets worth Rs 1,600 crore and Rs 1,400 crore respectively.
Other details:
832 candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 1,356 candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 389 candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 9 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.
186 female candidates are contesting in the Karnataka assembly election 2023. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 209 out of 2,560 candidates analysed were women, the ADR report also said.