ADR and the Karnataka Election Watch analysed self-sworn affidavits of 2,586 candidates.

As many as 55 per cent of the Congress party’s candidates for the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 10 declared criminal cases in their poll affidavits, an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) revealed. The ADR and the Karnataka Election Watch report analysed self-sworn affidavits of 2,586 of the 2,615 candidates from the national, state and registered unrecognised parties and Independents.

The report released Wednesday noted that 122 of 221 candidates from the Congress, 96 (43 per cent) out of 224 candidates from the BJP, 70 (34 per cent) of the 208 from the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) and 48 (23 per cent) of 208 candidates from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared criminal cases in their affidavits.

Candidates from Congress also had the highest number of serious criminal cases – 69 (31 per cent) of 221 – while the BJP and the JD(S) had 66 (30 per cent) and 52 (25 per cent), respectively.

According to ADR, serious criminal cases are offences for which the maximum punishment is of five years or more, if an offence is non-bailable, if it is an electoral offence (for eg. IPC 171E or bribery), an offence related to the loss to the exchequer, offences that are assault, murder, kidnap, rape-related, offences that are mentioned in Representation of the People Act (Section 8), offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and crimes against women.

Of the total 2,586 candidates analysed, ADR noted, 581(22 per cent) had declared criminal cases – a 48.59 per cent rise from 2018 when the last Assembly elections were held – and 404 (16 per cent) declared serious criminal cases.

The Congress saw an increase from 59 candidates with declared criminal cases in 2018 to 122 in 2023. The BJP saw an increase from 83 to 96 and the number the candidates with criminal cases in the JD(S) increased from 41 to 70.

Party-wise percentage of candidates with declared criminal cases 2018 vs 2023

“Karnataka Election Watch and ADR have not analysed 29 candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website,” the poll watchdog noted.

Crimes against women

The analysis found that 49 candidates had declared cases related to crime against women and among them, one had declared a case related to rape. Eight candidates had murder cases, while 35 had attempt to murder cases.

The poll watchdog also issued a ‘red alert’ to 111 constituencies. “Red alert constituencies are those where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves,” ADR noted.

The Assembly election results for the 224 constituencies in Karnataka will be declared on May 13.