Bangalore: A total of 40 out of 194 candidates of the BJP and Congress contesting the May five Assembly elections have criminal cases against them, according to NGOs – Karnataka Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). They released an analysis of the first list of BJP and Congress candidates, focusing on the criminal and financial assets of the re-contesting candidates, among others.

As many as 140 candidates have been declared by the BJP and 177 by the Congress, totalling 317. Affidavits from previous assembly elections in 2008 were available for 85 out of 140 candidates from BJP and 109 out of 177 candidates from the Congress. In total, 194 out of 317 affidavits of candidates announced in the first list from BJP and Congress were available and analysed.

Forty out of 194 nominees – 24 from BJP and 16 from Congress – or 21 per cent of candidates whose affidavits were available from previous elections have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of them, 16 candidates – ten from BJP and six from Congress – have declared serious criminal charges in their last submitted affidavit like murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping.

As many as 130 out of the 317 or 41 per cent candidates announced in the first list by BJP and Congress are recontesting MLAs from the outgoing assembly. The remaining 64 who are re-contesting did not win last time. Seventy-two out of the 140 or 51 per cent candidates announced in the first list from BJP are MLAs in the outgoing Karnataka Assembly. From the Congress, 58 out of 177 or 33 per cent of candidates announced in the first list are recontesting MLAs.